Squid Beats
by shika-kunfan001
Summary: Sup, playa! See this story is about a squidette and a dude. Dude hella likes this chick but she has no idea about it. He tries his best every day to make sure he's with her but things start getting salty. Squid drama, old man trouble, and rivaling turf teams sure is a lot for a squid to handle, bro. Can this playa get this girl? Or the cute, handsome, shooter gonna get her first?
1. Chapter 1

It started during Summer vacation while I was playing some few Turf Wars. I had nothing to do and not many friends to hang with, so killing time with my Ink brush was what I did with most of my time. That was the last place I would have thought that I was going to get shot by an arrow from cupid. That damn baby squid. How can he shoot arrows when he can barely manage moving his tentacles around? Whatever, but you understand what I mean by cupid. Well, she was cute. Which was odd because I thought many squid girls were cute but she caught my attention more than anyone. I was awestruck by how adorable she was that I was a sitting duck and she hit me with her Aerospray RG. As I was sent back to re-spawn, a caught a glimpse of her smiling face before a teammate of mine splat her as well. From there on, I would purposely go to the Inkopolis more often to see if I can see her again. I saw her a few more times, mostly on turf wars, and she would always be on the opposing team. It was kinda weird, but I would try to take her down myself just to see her a bit more. It would suck though, she had a faster fire rate than I, and since I was always distracted by her, I would always get splattered. That would upset my teammates. Not only that, but she eventually caught on that I would always try going for her. Sometimes she would start getting sneaky and hide away from me to see if I could find her. She would ambush me and splat me, unless I was lucky and found her. She would get surprised, but of course, I let her splat me either way. No matter what, before she splat me back to my base, she would give me a wide grin that I pictured every time I didn't see her.

Now school is in session. It has been for a couple of months and us Inklings are just adjusting to the school lifestyle with our new bodies. We were in the classroom and it was our break, which also counts as lunch for those that brought any. This classroom had twenty five individual desks for us Inklings, not including the teacher's desk in the front. The desks were in rows of five with no space for more desks or anything else. The front wall had a whiteboard with many different colored markers nearby and posters above it from famous philosophers like Albert Inkstein and John Inke. The left wall had windows peering out to the outside world and cabinets that contained different books of all the subjects we are learning about like math, science, and Inkanese. The right was just a wall with posters up about the stuff we learned these past few months so it was still empty but it grew more every week. The back wall was blank awaiting the posters that were going to fill it up, just like the right wall. Students were all around, sitting by the windows or by their desks in clusters. Some students left to use the bathroom, get something from the vending machines, or to just take a breather as we are stuck in this single class for the whole day. All of the inklings here were looking really fresh with their name brand clothes like Skalop, Zekko, and Krak-On. We aren't obligated to wear school uniforms as in the past, many students wouldn't wear them and just come in fresh clothes. They would suspend them for a while, but it eventually became obsolete when each class would only have like five students since everybody else got suspended. So it got lifted and only a few students still wear it today.

I'm sitting in my seat, as usual, which was located near the right wall and three seats away from the front. I'm casually listening to music with my head resting on my folded arms that are on top of my desk; my purple tentacles dangling on me made my head feel a bit heavy. I try not to make it obvious, glancing to the desks that were near the front, two rows away from me where three girls are huddled near each other. Normally, I wouldn't really stare at a crowd of girls like this but I'm not staring at them, just at her. She kept her tentacles long, reaching almost her ankles and has mastered walking without tripping over them. Her skin color was brown, like mocha and probably sweet like it as well. She wore the sporty bobble hat from the brand Skalop, recognizable with its black design. Her sweater was the Zekko hoodie, easily noted since I wear that brand too. She was wearing normal shorts and her shoes were red hi-horses which, unintentionally, I wore the same ones but in purple. What stood out from her fresh style was the color she loved being. Don't get me wrong, she wore all the colors at least once. She would come as blue, yellow, purple, green, orange, even white once, but the color she wore the most was bright pink.

"But then it exploded! I knew it was the opposite team's bomb but it was pink and I couldn't help myself." I heard her say to her friends, which she finished it with a big smile as always. Her friends gave her a giggle and told her something back, but I couldn't really hear from where I was sitting and from the earphones in my ears. I lowered the volume on my iSquid to hear them, but even that didn't help. Being said, she was a bit loud. Her voice was a bit louder and more high pitched than any other girls I've heard. Not that it's a bad trait, made her a bit unique, but it annoyed many people.

"Does Miss Goody Two-Shoes ever shut up?" I heard a growl behind me. It must be Serene, another girl from my class. She's known to be pretty rude and I hear her constantly complain about this girl. "And can she stop moving?"

That was another feature of hers. She's always on the move. If she not moving her feet around or moving from one place to another, she was swaying her body, or fidgeting with her hands.

She was now swaying her body around, making her long tentacles circle around her. She was staring off to the ceiling, seeing that her friends were now talking among themselves and she was in no interest of it. She kept staring all around the room until her eyes met mine. I suppressed a blush coming as she smiled at me and started to walk this way.

"Hey, Hydro." She said as she approached me. I nodded towards her and paused my music.

"Hey, Lilac." I greeted her. It got me a bit nervous that she came towards me and my voice cracked slightly when I said her name. She stood in front of my desk, smiling, and swaying as she was before.

"Are we gonna turf battle today? You owe me from not coming yesterday." She leaned in and nodded at me as if that would raise the probability of me going. Her big pink eyes stared at me, only making me more nervous. Ever since we entered school, I noticed that she was in the same class as me. It took me a whole week for me to gather up my strength to tell her hi. When I did, I thought I was let down when she stared confused at me. I felt embarrassed and had to explain that I was the guy that kept trying to splat her during the summer. In which, she giggled and hugged me. Caught me by surprised and I almost made myself turn bright pink. She tends to forget faces real easily but gets excited when she remembers. Now we're friends, though we all know how I feel about her.

"Sure. But we have to concentrate on our work too," I sighed. I can't say no to her.

"I'm okay, I'm okay! I've been getting great marks on my work so I'm okay." She kept nodding, her tentacles bouncing with them. That surprised many squids. Though she was loud and can't stay still, she was very smart; something I lacked in the academic side. Don't get me wrong, I'm smart, just not school smart.

"So did you go yesterday? Won any battles?" I asked, scratching my cheek. She leaned back, thinking for a bit.

"Oh! Yeah. I went yesterday. For a little while. My team kept getting beaten. I left before I usually do when you come with me." She pouted a bit. Her friends aren't big in turf wars. They were more into looking fresh. Since she knew me before anyone and she knew I liked to ink it up, she asked me to go with her after school. We go almost every day unless I need to catch up on something.

"That sucks. Why would you keep losing?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation going, at least for a bit more. I don't really have much to say in these kind of conversations but if I stop, she'll get bored and move on to another person to talk to.

"I wanna say it was because I was the only shooter, ya know. My team kept being all rollers or all snipers. And they weren't high levels, though they did try their best. Once, my team was only three of us, so we lost like big time." She explained, throwing her hands in the air to emphasize her loss. "But maybe this time, you'll be in my team and help me out. Sure, you're an ink brush user but you're really fast at throwing your ink and stuff." Lilac leaned in close again and I couldn't hide my cheeks from turning purple this time.

"Alright! Break time is over. Everyone to their seats." Saved by the teach.

Lilac quickly turned to get to her seat in the front of the class, a row away from me, smiling and giving me a wave before she did so. I let out the air I was holding in and relaxed. It seems to be getting harder to be around her with how I feel about her.

* * *

"And then, like, I thought I got him but he had his Ninja Squid thing and he splat me. I lost my Inkstrike because of that." Lilac explained as she swung her feet on the bench.

We were taking a break from turf battling , sitting outside of the lobby on a bench, drinking a soda. She was explaining to me about a match she lost. I was on the opposing team but I was lost in this battle. We had entered just when I new map was set in place and we had no idea where we were going.

"But Camp Triggerfish sure is big, isn't it?" She asked me, standing up and moving her feet in place.

"Sure was. I thought I was splatting the whole place until I found a part that no one inked up." I explained and then took a sip of my Mountain Ink soda.

"I hated the place with the gates that you had to wait for the last minute to be able to reach them. The other team got a total advantage if they knew." She pouted and spun herself. I couldn't help but smirk a bit as she couldn't kept still.

I then heard a Squid Sisters' song start playing. I looked around and looked for a source. That's when Lilac stopped and grabbed her phone from her pocket. She answered the call, silencing the song.

"Yeah, yeah? Oh, I'm just outside the Lobby. Oh, really really? Well, I think so." Lilac was on the phone and then turned to me. "Wanna practice with some friends?"

That took me back a bit. I've never done a friend battle before. My friends and I never had enough Inklings since we weren't many and when we were many, I didn't know all the people going and I'm not into that. I usually decline since I'm not that into big crowds and forced to interact with everyone but it was her.

"S-sure." I swallowed my pride and forced a smile. Her face brighten up as she went back to the phone.

"Yeah, yeah! We'll do it. We'll wait for you here then. Yeah. Okay, okay. Stay fresh!" She hanged up and spun again to look at me. "My friends are coming with friends. They said that they already reserved a room for us and it'll be ready soon. I guess not a lot of Inksters are here today. We can practice and maybe we'll get used to Camp Triggerfish."

"Oh, I see. Which friends?" Perhaps knowing who they were would help me not be in a bad mood later on when I'm with them. Not that I was going to hate them, just get somewhat annoyed by them since I just don't know how they act.

"It's my friends from class. Rachel with the short tentacles and Luz with the green eyes. Another friend of ours from another class is coming too. She's Koral. She's nice. A little quiet though." Lilac explained it all to me. I didn't mind her friends but as I said, they're more about being fresh than inking around. I don't know about this Koral squid but hopefully she is like how Lilac described.

"What about the other friends?" I asked, seeing that we need six or eight for a good enough private battle. If it was only going to be us, we aren't enough and it will be all uneven. She stopped her moving and started to sway to look up at the sky.

"They said friends. I don't know who, just friends I guess. But Luz did sound giggly when she called. Maybe, maybe she's bringing boys. She gets giggly when she's with boys."

I let out a small sigh. Great, its a group date thing. Her friends are probably trying not to get these fresh boys bored so they decided to take them into a turf practice. And knowing them, they probably have no such clue in what to do compared to Lilac. I wouldn't mind this at all, being that I will probably get paired up with Lilac more, but one thing is making me nervous about this. I'm not the freshest guy in Inkopolis. I have my tentacles up on a high ponytail, which is starting to go out of style according to some. I have dull gray eyes that look like I was bored all the time. I have to wear the Arrowbands, normal glasses will just fall off for me and I always thought they looked dorky. All I wear is a black layered long sleeve, shorts, and my purple hi-horses. Not even remotely fresh and these guys coming will probably make me look like the un-freshest guy around.

I sighed once more before drinking from my soda again. Lilac was spinning herself again, not fazed by these news at all. But why would she? She's always off on her own world, which I guess is a good thing. She has nothing to worry about; no low self-esteem.

"I wonder how good these guys are?" I heard Lilac said as she stopped and looked towards the lobby. "If they're good, they'll be a challenge. I can get better if I can win them. You think they'll be a challenge? And if they are, think I can take them? What if I can't?"

I stared at her for a bit. Maybe she does have insecurities after all. It seem subtle but I think that's what I heard from her. I looked at her and shrugged.

"Don't worry. You got this. You're really good at inking up the turf and you don't back down when an enemy is shooting straight at you. You have guts. You have this. Plus, we don't know if they're good or not." I tried to reassure her. I guess she got the point because she started to sway again.

"Yeah, yeah. Plus, I have you by my side. We can both do it!" Lilac gave me her big smile again, which I couldn't help but smirk at. She's gotten really attached to me when it comes to turf battles. She gets a little fidgety when we aren't in the same team but I guess she's just a little shy even though she's very comfortable with talking to people.

It wasn't long until they arrived. And as I predicted, these guys were fresh. They had they're weapon bags in hand. One had a roller bag, a big one so it might be a Dynamo roller. Another had a charger bag and the other had a smaller bag, so a shooter. All had different hair styles, different from plain old, not fresh up do I have.

"Hey, squid! Ready to ink it up?" This was Luz. She had long, orange tentacles that she made into twin tails landing about to her mid back. Her eyes were green, as Lilac said, and bought some of the freshest things that were out there. She wore the squid hairclip, retro sweat by Jelly Fresh, normal shorts, and cherry kicks. She giggled after a while, noting that she was giggly with boys. She had a shooter bag with her.

"Can't wait for this, squids." This was Rachel and her tone sounded sarcastic. She had short, orange tentacles that fell onto her shoulders. She had tinted shades on, hiding her eyes. She wore the white anchor tee by SquidForce, with normal shorts, and red hi-tops. She carried a small shooter bag as well.

"This will be fun!'"Lilac said to them, clearly not focused that they were lying this whole time about wanting to turf battle. She then skipped towards a girl in the back holding a long charger bag. "Hi Koral. Ready for fun?"

Koral nodded. She was a bit shorter than the rest of the girls. She had her yellow tentacles in a braid and went down to her hips. She had green eyes as well. Her style was fresh but not so extreme as Luz. She wore the retro specs over her blue eyes, gray college sweat by Splash Mob, normal shorts, and black seahorses. I might get along with her, if she's not too shy.

"This is Hydro by the way," Lilac said as she went up to me and grabbed my hand to follow her towards Koral. She always does this when she wants me to follow her and it makes me real nervous. I hope she doesn't feel me getting sweaty.

"H-hi." I told Koral as Lilac let go of my hand and reached over to greet Koral.

"Hello," she said. Her voice was sweet and soft and she shook my hand.

"Where are my manners? Tsk. Tsk. My bad." Luz said as she came up to us. "Lilac, Hydro. These guys are Jordan, Jet, and Rob. You remember them from last time, don'tcha Lilac? They were the ones that we met at Big G's place." She giggled once again.

"Hi! Yeah, I remember ya guys. Nice ta meet ya again. This is Hydro!" Lilac said as she smiled to them all and introduced me too. I nodded my head towards them in acknowledgement, which they did the same, one of them waved slightly with a grin. I looked over at them quickly. Jordan was the one holding the Roller bag. He wore a paintball helmet and his blue tentacles were spiked up in the back. He wore the Zekko Baseball Long sleeve, shorts, and squid-stitch slip ons. Rob was next to him and he had the shooter bag and was the one that waved. He had blue eyes and his green tentacles were let down and reached a bit above his shoulders and wore the backwards hat by Zekko, the Varsity jacket, shorts, and Hi-horses, gold edition. Lastly was Jet. He was the one that had the charger bag. He had yellow eyes, his blue tentacles were brought towards his face,slightly hiding his left eye. He wore the 5 panel cap by Zekko, the camo zip hoodie, shorts, and blue moto boots. I couldn't help feel insecure and tried not to stare at them.

"So you guys ready? Ready?" Lilac said pretty excitedly. She nodded and then went to grab her shooter bag that was next to the bench and my bag. "We can decide groups and choose the map once we're in."

"Sounds fun." Luz tried to sound excited too. She seem to have her eyes on Jet.

"Yeah! Let's go! There's a new map today too. We can ink that! Ink it as practice for regular turf battles." Lilac explained as she walked towards the lobby. Everyone followed her as I lagged behind having to get my ink brush bag from the bench and throw my soda away.

As we all eventually got inside and showed our IDs to the jellyfish in charge of letting people in, we all settled towards the side where all of the private rooms were located. At the private rooms, also called practice rooms for some, we get to chose the field, teams, and battle type. We all stood outside of one of the rooms, which always have two elevator doors per room. Between the two doors are some buttons and handles to operate which map we wanted to use and under the controls were little lockers to put our bags and stuff in while we battle.

"Okay, so like, before we get in, we have to choose teams, I guess." Rachel said as she faced toward at our group. She had been staying awfully close by Jordan. I sighed; hopefully this won't be getting too complicated. I looked over to Lilac, only to find her messing with the buttons and levers for the maps.

"How about squidettes vs playas?" Rob said as he took his weapon out: a rapid blaster. I saw Lilac turn quickly and stared at me; she looked a bit worried but she tried to hide it.

"Eh? Is that even fair? We're just girls." Luz complained, hands on hips. I was about to groan at this before Lilac came up and stared at Luz for a bit. I heard Rachel sigh and shake her head; the two looked confused at their friend. Then Lilac stepped up a bit more toward Luz and smiled.

"Don't say that. Just 'cause we're girls doesn't mean we can't do it. We can like totally win if we work hard. We'll help each other. It'll be fun. Fun! That's what it's supposed to be at the end." She tried to encourage Luz. I saw Koral give a small nod and Rachel come up towards her and give her a small shrug.

"I guess." Luz pouted and then looked over at Lilac. After a few seconds of staring at her, clearly getting a puppy eye treatment, she huffed. "Fine! But just this first battle, got it?" Luz looked over at the boys they brought. Rob smirked and gave the thumbs up while Jordan and Jet nodded. She then looked at me. Not very interested in any of this but Lilac was staring right at me so I nodded as well.

"Yay!" Lilac jumped and went to go check at the map on the monitor near the buttons. "Our map will be ready in 30 seconds. We gotta enter through these doors soon." Once she said that, she opened her bag and got her Aerospray RG out and placed her bag into one of the lockers . Everyone else did the same as well. Jordan had his Dynamo Roller, as I predicted. Rob already had his Blaster out. Jet silently took out a E-Liter 3k. Luz had a Tentatek Splattershot and Rachel a N-Zap '89. Koral took out a squiffer. And lastly, I took out my Ink brush.

As we entered our respective doors, girls to the left and boys on the right, I tried to look back quickly to see Lilac before we left but she was out of sight; she was probably the first one in the elevator.

"Okay, so what's the plan, playas?" Rob asked as he looked at all of us once the doors locked us inside. The elevator started moving, taking us to our base, and it gave a small hum; a waiting song played in the background. I heard a sigh from Jet, who was next to me and saw a shrug from Jordan. Great, I was I paired up with players that don't even know what to do? Jet who sighed started to stretch his arms and then began to talk.

"We go over this all the time, Rob. First, Jordan run past us and take your roller out. Try to make as many paths for us and for you to hide in when an enemy, and in this case, a girl approaches. Rob, you follow behind him and cover anything he left un-inked. I'll find a high place towards the middle to back you guys up when an enemy approaches. And being said," Jet turned towards me, whom I raised an eyebrow to. "Can you stay back to cover the base and once you're done with that, head towards our location and maybe even advance forward?"

It seem that I have spoken a bit too soon and was impressed by this. I thought Jet would be that stuck up cool guy, but he seem to be pretty chill. Most of these guys were, but they were still pretty fresh compared to I, so I still felt weird.

"Sure." I simply said, it sounded like a pretty good plan. Jet looked at everybody and each of us nodded; Rob gave him a thumbs up.

As we heard the elevator stop, the doors started to open. We were left in our side of the map. It was of course, Camp Triggerfish and it surprised the rest of the group as we all got out and walked towards our respawn center.

"Damn! New map looks fresh!" Rob said as he whistled and looked all around. "This is gonna be fun."

"Pay attention to where ya go, playa." A husky voice was heard. It caught me by surprised and I looked over at Jordan. That was the first time he talked and I wasn't expecting it like that. He noticed me looking at him and he just nodded back.

We all got to the base and immediately turned into squid to load up on ink. Once done, we went back to Inkling. I noticed that we had all turned pink.

"Got the plan? Then let's rock." Jet said as he got his E-liter ready. As we heard the music start, Rob and Jordan advanced. Jet tried to get some of the area inked until he found a nice path and went forwards. I, of course, stayed near the base and inked whatever the rest didn't. I had played before in here with Lilac before the rest came, so I knew there was the other area behind the wall to the left. I noticed a small trail of ink, most likely left my Jet, as it went toward the back and went up a wall. I inked all that I could and I was about to go until I heard something coming. Quickly, I turned into squid and tried to go back as fast as I could. I had dodged an Inkstrike that had just inked up the area with green instead of pink. With a sigh, I covered the area back with pink. When that was done, I had a chance to get an Inkstrike and I decided to ink up the part where our team couldn't reach due to the gates being up.

I was finally advancing, going through ink that my teammates had placed and heading now towards the middle. I noticed a sniper on top of one of the walls. It was Jet, seeing that the color was pink in his tank. I heard someone get splattered and taken back to their base. I went to the back where a bunch of grates were and as I suspected, no one had inked up the place there. I started to ink up the area, setting up a sprinkler on the bottom of the grate as I kept inking everything pink. When I was coming back to go up the grates to get behind the enemy lines, I saw a green ink coming my way behind the wall from where I came from. I hid behind the side, where a pillar was beside the ramp. I hid there and waited for whoever it was to advance and I get them with a sneak attack. I kept seeing the ink coming forward, destroying my sprinkler, when it was about to enter my area, it stopped. Confused, I waited a bit to see if they came back. Did they get splattered? My patience was running low and I decided to take a look. As I went forward to look, I heard something trigger. I jumped back, just escaping an ink mine. A heard a giggle as a shooter came out from some ink near the ramp.

"I knew I saw you!" It was Lilac and she wasn't going to let me out of her sight. She had her Aerospray in hand, and kept shooting. I dodged forward and tried to ink the parts she inked so I can escaped, but she went towards the ramp and I saw her plant another mine. From there, she quickly squidded back and got onto the grates. She then started shooting me from the top of the grates and I tried squidding away but she had a good eye and kept spraying the place in ink. Eventually, she ran out of ink and had to turn squid; now this is my chance. As she tried to get ink, I advanced with my ink brush. Unfortunately, I forgot that she had the Ninja Squid on and she had shot most of the area with her green ink. I got confused, looking for her and inking all i could before I heard shots from behind.

"Lookin' for me?" She said before she splatted me away. As I left, she waved goodbye and smiled, only to continue inking the area I had just done.

As I returned to base, I super jumped to where Rob was, seeing that he was well into their base. As I got there, I started to go towards the area I was just at. I was planning to ink up the part Lilac had inked already. As I got there, I started to ink everything I could. I had to dodge many ways though. Knowing her, Lilac must have placed a mine around for anyone. Just as I have thought, the ink mine exploded, having to be there for too long. As they did so, I started to ink it up. I got to the place where she had last splatted me and noticed it all green. I sighed and started to spray ink everywhere. I heard an Inkstrike somewhere and hoped it was a pink one and not green. I finally inked the whole place and then decided to go towards the middle where everyone was at. There, I saw Koral up on a wall, sniping someone and splatting them. I tried my best to avoid them and went towards another green area. As I inked that area, I heard someone coming.

"Not fair!" It was Luz and she was being chased by Jordan. I let them be, not knowing if he was playing with her or wanted help getting her. I went into even more enemy territory and on the wrong time because the music changed. Great, one minute left. As I inked what I could, I saw a light. I squidded away quickly, seeing that it was a sniper shot. I hid behind a wall, inking the part behind the wall and whatever the shot kept getting. The charger, Koral, kept trying to get me, despite that the wall was in the way. Great, it's the last few seconds and I can't even move. The shots then stopped. I looked over, seeing that she had jumped down; probably got frustrated and is trying to get me herself. I squidded quickly towards to her and jumped, spraying her as she charged. She splatted and went away. As that happened, the whistle blowed and it was time. We all stopped and looked up. There was a giant screen coming up from one of the sides towards the middle of the stage. There, the stage was seen, painted with pink and green. Judd, the portly cat that judges all the turf battles, appeared and did his waiting dance. He then took out a flag as the gauges under him appeared and started to fill up; green were on the right and the pink on the left. Then music started to play as Judd pointed his flag toward the pink side.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about." I heard Rob say from somewhere on top. Jet came from somewhere near our turf and Jordan was slowly coming our ways. From a bit of a distance, I was able to hear Luz again.

"See? I told you we wouldn't make it!" Luz was heard whining somewhere near the turf I was just at before I had my brawl with Koral.

"But, Luz, it's not about winning! It was fun! Fun! Fun! Didn't you have fun?" Lilac was also then heard after her. I frowned. This girl better not make trouble over a dumb turf war. I was about to head over to the scene but a charger was then placed in front of me as to stop me from advancing. I looked to the side to see Jet holding his E-Liter towards me. I squinted my eyebrows at him, I was both agitated and confused. He stared at me and shook his head slightly.

"Let them deal with it, bro." He simply said. Is he really stopping me to defend someone? Who the squid does he think he is? I was about to bark something back when I heard some footsteps coming our ways.

"See! We totally did well and stuff. Like, I didn't do this part. I was splatted. How many times did you get splatted, squid? 'Cause I got splatted a bunch of times! Bet you were more stealthier than me, though." It sounded like Lilac and she was holding Luz by the hand and being followed by Koral and Rachel.

"Y'all got nothin' to worry about, bro. They're always like this." He simply said before he put his charger down. Rob then ran towards us and Jordan had been near us for a while.

"And you just let them do this? Like, Luz being like that ain't right." I said to him. Just because they look happy doesn't mean I don't want to call her out.

"We know it aint, playa. But, ya know, them girls are a bit-" Rob was talking before he was interrupted by Jordan.

"Shh. We'll talk about this later. Don't wanna make more trouble," Jordan explained as the girls were much closer to us before. As I saw them coming, I just realized how much pink ink was on Lilac and the girls. I knew Lilac loved the color pink, so I want to say she let herself get splatted a few times and that explains why she was the most pink from all. When she saw us, she let go of Luz, who pouted some, and ran to us.

"That was great, man. Let's go again!" She said as she stopped right in front of me and Jet. Rob was then heard giving a small laugh.

"Squid, you're drenched in ink. Ya sure ya want to battle again?" Rob pretended to shoot her.

"We'll see who's the one getting drenched, playa." Lilac responded. Rob blushed and Jet tried holding in his laughter. This got me a bit confused as I watched Rob and then looked over at Jet. Don't tell me... Lilac didn't seem to noticed anything though, as she looked back to the girls.

"Wanna go again? Or change up teams? New teams? Since I promised you, squid." Lilac was now swaying as she talked to them.

"Ya know it, squid. I've never liked all squidette teams or all playa teams." Luz explained. I noticed Rachel roll her eyes at this and Lilac bit her lip as to stop herself from saying anything.

"Okie dokie. New teams, right? Right. Let's get back to the lobby and pick our team and map." From there on, Lilac ran towards the middle where the screen came out from. Under it, another elevator door was placed.

"Come on!" She yelled and jumped as she waited for us to come over. I smiled at her silly self and I was about to walk forward when I noticed a few people's actions. Luz and Rachel seem very disconnected. At school, they're like best friends, but now it seems that Rachel wants to do nothing with Luz. Koral is sort of at the side, doing her own thing and making things feel even more awkward between this team. Hopefully, it gets better as the matches change. I then glanced over at the boys. Rob was still blushing and stiff as Jet walked over and pushed him to walk and Jordan followed behind. I sighed. It's just getting too salty with the girls and awkward with how Jet talked to me and Rob being interested in Lilac as well. Great, I probably lost this match though. Rob's a pretty jumpy guy like her and if this progresses, I guess my chances are just done.

"Hydro!" "Come on, playa!" Lilac and Rob called out. I looked over seeing that everyone had reached the door while I spaced out. Great, thanks brain. I ran towards them and tried to forget all of this. Let's try to get this day get better.

* * *

We did a few more matches. We started to have fun for a while and started to lose track of time, especially since this room got reserved for hours. By the time we were in our 17th match, we noticed that it had started to get late.

"Sorry guys, but we gotta run." Luz said as she looked at the clock in the lobby. A lot of other Inklings were walking out as we stood in front of our private room. We were all covered in different ink, for those that didn't feel like shaking it off. Others, like Luz, always shook the ink away once we were done in battles. She said it wasn't exactly fresh to have Ink proof clothes and not shake off the ink.

"Awwwww! Can't stay a lil' longer, squid?" Lilac whined as she hugged Rachel and grabbed Koral with her tentacles. She avoided Luz, probably not wanting to cover her in ink again.

"Sorry, squid. We gotta go. I have to study with Luz and Koral's gotta go. Ya know how her old man is." Rachel explained with a weary expression to Lilac but hugged her back lightly. With a pout she let go of them and sighed.

"But we better have fun again. We almost never get to have fun!" Lilac chimed as she swayed in place.

"We'll have fun again soon. Plus, we have practices, remember?" Luz popped in as she fixed a ponytail. "Besides. We see each other again tomorrow."

"It's getting a bit late..." Koral spoke again since we met and I completely forgot she was able to talk. She was an odd one. She was very quiet and followed people's orders. She never refused, she never fought, she never gave ideas; she was very passive. She decided to shake the ink off now and seeing Koral did so, Rachel did the same. Lilac didn't do it just yet and stayed covered in ink.

"Okay, okay. I'll walk you to the station then?" Lilac asked. Luz looked over to us boys. Rob quickly looked away and Jordan was on his iSquid and didn't notice anything that was happening. I didn't know what to do so I just looked over at Lilac and then at Jet. Jet was the one that stepped up for us and was putting away his weapon.

"We gotta stay and do somethin' real quick. Not the most gentlesquid thing to do, but we playas anyways, so we can't walk ya guys home today." He explained. Luz was about to say something when I saw Rachel grab her hand and pulled her forward.

"Alright, playas. Gotta leave without ya then. Let's go check out of the room in the front. Stay fresh!" She said everything quickly. Luz pouted and walked with her, quietly saying a 'bye'. Koral waved goodbye and Lilac followed.

"I'll be right back," she told me and I nodded back. I stared at her walk off a bit and smiling to her friends that seem to be trying their best to not be in a bad mood.

"Bro." I looked over and saw Jet telling me to walk with him out the lobby. He had already shaken off the ink and so had Jordan who was next to him. I was so busy looking at Lilac that I didn't notice them packing their stuff.

"Let's go get some drinks, playa. I'm thirsty." Rob said as he waited next to me. He brought over my weapon bag and I accepted it, placing my Ink brush inside. While I was doing that, Rob shook the ink away and once I finished, I did so too.

I walked out with them and went to the nearest vending machine. Rob ran to it and punched the buttons, as we took a seat on the bench nearby. This was weird for me again. I don't necessary just kick it with guys I've never known before after a session of battles. This day was weird too, with how the girls acted and stuff. Luz was a total joy krill. Whenever something nice seem to happen, she always had a retort to say and bring people down. I wanted to call her out so many times, yet those times Jet would always tell me to chill. It seem like he had a good intention but I was about to call him out too. She eventually calmed down towards the end, probably tired from blabbering so much. That was when I remembered about what happened in the first battle and how the guys were telling me something before we were interrupted.

"Wait, what were you guys tellin' me about?" I asked, completely dawned that I forgot to ask as soon as the girls left. Rob gave a small laugh as he was still buying stuff.

"Man, we thought you forgot, playa." He said as he grabbed some stuff that had fallen to the bottom. When he grabbed them, he threw a can to me and Jet and we caught them; Jet was sitting next to me. He went over and stood next to Jordan who was standing on the wall. I looked down at my drink, and opened it as I looked over at Jet.

"As we were sayin'," Jet started as he opened his can. "If the girls seem in trouble, don't get involved. I know it sounds real salty but like they can handle their squid. " He then took a sip of his soda.

"But what if they don't and someone does get hurt by somethin' that a specific someone says." I raised an eyebrow and my tone a little. It seem that whenever something did come up, Luz was the one that started it. "It just seem like someone can't stay quiet."

"Playa, chill. They ain't hurting anyone. Other than Rachel and Luz, that is. Them girls got too much problems on themselves. They besties but they will eat each other up, man. We've known them since they turned, them girls got more fangs than all of us but they only bitin' themselves." Rob explained as he opened some chips. I just noticed that he had like two more bags and three more sodas for himself.

"But, like what about Lilac." I bit the inside of my cheek. I can't really blow my cover on her. "She got yelled at for somethin' she didn't really do."

"See. Lilac's a good girl. She knows what Luz says ain't real. We know her squid ain't real either. Didn't ya see how confused them squids were, Rachel and Lilac? This isn't what Luz usually is when they're by themselves. So whatever it is, they seem to have a hold on it. From what I've seen, Lilac is the only one that can calm Luz before she gets a tantrum. Trust me. She can and will get worse if Lilac isn't there to calm her." Jet explained and sighed.

"She's too pure for this world." Rob said real quiet and I brushed it off. It was true.

"Still ain't right though. Like who does this squid think she is?" After I say that, I hear a real deep low sigh. I looked over to Rob and he smiled as he moved his eyes towards Jordan. Jordan was stretching before he placed his hands onto his helmet and started to take it off. When he did so, I noticed that his tentacles fell down, his tentacles probably spike up when he wears the helmet. He looked straight at me, his eyes were pink and he had snake bite piercings.

"Ya gotta be real careful with these squids, man. They all come from pretty famous families. All of them had one or both parents be real good turfers when they were young. All want their girls to be real good turfers too but Luz is different. Her dad was a big turfer but her mom is a designer. They both agreed that Luz will be pretty fresh and she's kinda absorbed that into her. She was big into turfing until her parents just started to get to her. You saw that Tentatek, squid doesn't play around. But now she's all about being the freshest and that changed her. No more turf battles and if she does, there will be trouble. Might be an act though because squid never act like this before. But ever since, we knew it was trouble. Girl Rachel seems real tired of her squid and we know somethin' is gonna blow up soon but we don't know what the squid is goin' on in the low key. Can't be burstin' in their accusing Luz for somethin' her parents got into her and we can't be telling Rachel down either 'cause we don't have anythin' about her beef. We've only met Lilac once and we told her then about being careful with them two but she just smiles and says she's gone help. Li aint dumb, and she's trying her best, but we know she's gone get hurt and we won't be able to stop her. This is the first time we met Koral, so we have no info on her other than shes real quiet." Jordan explained as he put his hair into a ponytail like me. I sat there watching as I tried to sink everything in. If this is all the parents fault, then wouldn't these girls be smart enough to not listen to them?

"Rachel is also a hot head. So when it looks like Luz is calming down and we finally get some peace, Rachel comes up and starts barking it up again." Jet added in. When this happened, I saw Jordan's eyes quickly look at Jet and then down. "But it's a miracle she was quiet today."

"But wouldn't that still count as trying to change Luz then? Like make her realize that her parents are not doing the right thing?" I asked, it just seem too much like a prime time drama to me.

"We can't really do that, playa. We just dont do that." Rob explained. "Guys aren't seen to be doing that squid, ya know. Plus, that'll just make more trouble. The girls have tried but it didn't work out. Look at them, playa."

"Plus, the girls have enough beef in their hands from their family, they don't need more. All of them have pretty big turf families, like I said. They are taught from young to be real good at inking up the place and get scolded if they don't do it. That's what happens when ya have big turf families, ya know playa? Rachel completely ignores them though. She tries to show them wrong, maybe that's why she's a bit...tired of everything. Heard she got her iSquid taken for that. Luz absorbed it, probably not wanting to be like Rachel." Jordan explained and then took a sip of his soda.

"What about Lilac?" I had to ask. This time, Jet talked.

"We don't really know how they treat her but we know that her dad was a big turfer. Know The Big Purp? That's her old man."

"What? Her dad is Big Purp? He's like the best shooter that had ever existed!" I never knew such information; I never bothered to ask Lilac about her parents, but what normal Inkling would? "Wait, doesn't he also have a son that's pretty big in Rank battles too?" I remember reading an article about it. If he does have a ranking son, then it must also be Lilac's brother.

"That's right, playa. According to sources, he's a Rank S+ now. Heard that playa never leaves the lobby to make sure his ranking stays the same." Rob said with some coral chips in his mouth.

"But we know that's fake. Met him once as he walked toward his house." Jordan said as he threw his can. "Pretty chill, but looked hella tired to deal with anythin' else. It was also late. Probably almost midnight."

I sat there for a bit taking in all of this information. So this whole drama among the girls is because of their parents. Then why haven't they resolved it with them? Maybe their not all like Rachel's parents. Hopefully Lilac's parents aren't but seeing that her bro is such a hard worker, they might be too. I was starting to feel bad for these girls. They're getting all heated with each other about something that their parents expect them to do. We all just had turned maybe eight months ago. Seems pretty bad that they're already expected to do so much. Kind of made me feel a bit sad for Luz, though she was still being very mean to Lilac.

"Wait, why are you telling me all of this?" I asked. They all stopped and looked at me and got me a bit nervous.

"We dont want you getting caught in some squid drama, playa. And don't worry about Lilac, she got this. She ain't goin' to let somethin' like this affect her." Jet explained with a sigh.

"Plus," Rob came from behind and placed his arm over my shoulders. "You're a pretty good turfer, playa. How you ink up the place and know where to put the Inkstrikes and all. Make sure, everything is covered and give us pretty good points to win." He talked and ate his chips.

"What?" I don't know if I'm just really tired that I've had so much information poured towards me or that I couldn't understand Rob with his mouth full of chips.

"What that loser is sayin', is that we would like to have you in our turf team." Jet finished it off. I looked over at all of them.

"Me?" I pointed at myself, surprised.

"Yeah, playa! You're so good at this. We haven't seen someone ink like that in months!" Rob commented and grinned.

"See, we're tryin' to make a team, bro. We never find the perfect playa though but you got some moves. So, we're askin' if you want to join. We'll just call you up when we have time to ink it up. Do some competitions and maybe some Rank battles if we think we're up to it." Jet explained and nodded. "You have potential, bro. So you in?"

I was awestruck that they asked me. I don't have much friends and they usually don't ink in teams, just in random battles. Seeing that these guys I just met a few hours ago are being so nice to me while I thought they were going to be a bother really got to me.

"But, what about Lilac? I always turf with her and I wouldn't want to stop, ya know." I asked. That was my major concern. Sure, being in teams takes time and dedication and I can do that, unless it means leaving Lilac behind. I'm always with her when she wants to ink it up, doubt she has anyone else to rely on.

"You ink it Lilac, playa? So lucky!" Rob said, getting a bit too personal with my space.

"Don't worry. We ain't like other playas that don't let other squids not hang with them. You can bring her along and stuff. She's a cool squid, plus you can see how much this loser is interested in her. And we'll let you know about battles in advance so you can let her know." Jet told me and I swear I was able to physically feel Rob blush next to me. Being in a team sure sounds fun. I'm not huge in inking but every since Lilac brought me over to play after school, I kind of got addicted to it. Plus, maybe having a bit of a competitive streak in me will get me more motivated to actually do stuff. And inking is a bit of good work out sport, with all the running and jumping. Maybe I can get pretty fit and fresh and Lilac would rather look at me than Rob. But bringing Lilac a long and just letting her watch might get her bored and she might get close to Rob while I'm bulking up.

"Can I let you know another time, man?" I asked. Jet nodded and gave a small smirk and Rob let go and let out a small sigh. Guess he really wanted me on the team.

"Here, let me put my number on yo iSquid and ya can message me whenever." Jet said as he pointed at my pocket. I took out my phone quickly and passed it to him. He slid the screen, he looked surprised that I didn't have a lock on it, and then started to put his number on the contacts.

"Alright. It's a go then. We gotta go, bro. My old woman will take my weapon away if I'm late today. Have people over or somethin'." Jet explained as he got up. I saw Jordan move over towards us with his weapon bag in hand. Rob threw away a bunch of empty bags and cans and then ran back to get his weapon.

"Does that mean I can't stay over, playa?" Rob asked with a groan.

"Sorry, bro."

"Man! Not fair."

Jordan and Jet were already ready to set foot and I stood up from my seat to stretch a bit, stiff from sitting around for a while and sore from the battles.

"Alright, bro. We'll see you some other day or somethin'. Even if you don't wanna join, just text me to hang out." Jet said.

"Yeah, playa! You're pretty chill. Like a more expressive Jordan." Rob said and pointed at Jordan who had placed his helmet back on so I wasn't able to see his expression.

"Yeah sure." I said with a smile. This is much different from hanging out with my usual friends.

"See ya." Jet said and Jordan nodded to me as he followed by him. Rob was the last one to follow as he lagged behind from grabbing his bag.

"See ya later, playa." he said and walked away only to come back. "Oh, and can ya tell Li that I said bye?" I saw him blush a bit and smiled. I bit the inside of my cheek so I wouldn't frown and nodded at him. No need to be mean to him when he's been so nice to me.

"Sure, got it, man."

"Come on, bro!" Jet yelled and Rob quickly turned and started to run towards them.

"Thanks, playa! Stay fresh." That was the last thing I heard from Rob or any of the three before they left towards the shops nearby.

I stood there by the bench for a bit, waiting for Lilac to return. I thought about the girls situation. Seem like a bunch of squid to me, but I haven't been in that kind of situation like that. They said that Rachel rebels her parents, but I wonder how. Does she get into arguments? From what I've seen, she does have some knowledge on how to turf, but she wasn't like a hardcore player. But she looked pretty annoyed about turfing in the beginning and she looked like she just didn't care about doing her best at the end. Koral is an interesting one too. She was very pushy at the end, saying that she had to go because her old man or something. She must be in a situation like them as well. Being so, if they are all in the same boat, they must all have known each other since young or something. I wonder if they all live by each other. If so, then they must live by the Crabshaw district. After turf battles, I walk with Lilac home since we both get off at the same stop. After a bit, we split up and she always walks towards the Crabshaw district while I walk to my area, Lagoon Heights. It is known that a lot of famous turfers do live there.

As I thought about this, I heard squishy shoes skipping my way. I looked up and noticed it was Lilac, still inked up and coming towards me.

"Sorry I took long, Hydro. They wanted me to stay with them until the next train came." She smiled and was hugging her bag.

"It's cool. I wasn't waiting long. The guys just recently left." I explained not wanting her to think she left me alone for too long.

"Oh! That's cool. They're cool." She nodded, shook her ink, and then took a seat on the bench and putting her bag down. "They were good turfers, ya know. Like I'm glad I was able to ink it up with you guys. I had tons of fun!"

"Yeah. It was fun," I said, not wanting to spill out anything about how I felt about Luz's actions.

"I was all worried they were going to be these really strong and powerful turfers and stuff. I was so scared but then we played and I was relieved that they were pretty chill playas." She continued and dangled her legs by the bench.

"But, didnt you know them from before? I think that's what Luz said. And they told me they met you once before."

"Well, yeah. But we never really like turfed with them. We saw them when we went to eat one time. They knew each other but that was my first time meeting them. It was kinda boring though. I really wanted to turf when they brought me along but all they did was hang out and eat stuff." Lilac said with a sigh. It was like a memory she didn't want to remember. I took a seat next to her for a while.

It was quiet after that. Like we were so tired that we both didn't even want to talk anymore. She dangled her feet and I sat there watching the squids leaving home and some just coming to turf. The sun was setting a bit, making everything look orange. Couples passed by, holding each other's tentacles and talking. I quickly looked over at her and she was off looking at something to her side, not paying attention to any one at all. I wonder what if would feel like to hold her tentacles. They were really long in comparison to anyone else. Would they be heavy? Or more sensitive than normal tentacles?

"What do you..." Lilac looked over to me and started to say something until she stopped and then looked away.

"Huh?" That was really odd for her to do. "Were you askin' somethin'?" I asked. Maybe she got nervous when she noticed I was staring at her.

"It's nothin'. I think I'm tired or somethin'." She replied and stretched her arms. After she did so, she stood up and swayed a bit. "Think it's time to head home?"

"I guess." I got up from the bench and grabbed my bag. I observed her a bit more. She gave off a tiny yawn and did appear tired.

We both have gathered our stuff and started to walk towards the station. We tapped our passes when we got there and waited for the next train to come.

"Are we comin' again tomorrow? I wanna try to Turf Battle again in random. Maybe, maybe Camp Triggerfish will be on again." Lilac spun around, slowly, as we waited.

"Tomorrow? Sure, I don't mind that."

"And maybe we'll see the guys. Maybe we'll even get to go against each other. Maybe, maybe we can go out to eat tomorrow. I'm craving pizza." Lilac was starting to go everywhere. She does that when she's tired. She'll start to jump from one thing to another, way more than usual.

"Yeah, pizza sounds good tomorrow. Oh, and Rob said to stay fresh. He left before he could tell you." I told her. If I didn't and she sees Rob soon, I wouldn't want to look like a jerk.

"Stay Fresh!" She said and posed just like the Squid Sisters. She's definitely tired.

The train arrived and we got in. She quickly took a seat nearby that was next to a window. She stared off outside and then gently placed her head down. She was starting to nod. I watched her as she did so, I guess I'll just take care of her while she takes a nap. The train was a bit empty at this time. Most Inklings have gone home before or have stayed to play a bit more by Inkopolis. A few business people and some kids coming from other school districts were patiently waiting for their stop. Some were on their iSquids, doing their homework, or taking a nap like Lilac. It was peaceful. I looked over at Lilac. She was hugging her bag real right, scared that her Aerospray might fall. Her face was pressed toward the window, her hat was slipping and was starting to cover the right side of her face. I smiled at her sleeping self, she was too pure for this world. Or at least the things that she has to go through. I leaned back in my seat and stared up, feeling the train rock as it moved. I could feel my eyes growing heavy but I tried to stay awake, just in case we miss our stop. My eyes kept moving lower and lower; maybe just closing them wouldn't hurt. I'll still be listening, just with my eyes closed.

* * *

"Hey!"

I mumbled and groaned as I heard someone call. Were they calling to me? I then started to feel tentacles shaking me.

"Hey! Hydro, come on! Our stop is here."

I bolted up when I heard that and looked next to me. Lilac was holding her bag and her tentacles were on me. I looked outside to see the familiar buildings that were by our station.

"Oh squid!" I said as I got up and grabbed my bag and run to the doors. I stayed by them, placing my hand on the door to keep it open for Lilac. She eventually caught up, being trapped by me being on the side seat, and I let go as she got out.

"That was a close call." Lilac said as she walked backwards in front of me. "Imagine if we missed it."

"Then we would be getting home pretty late." I added and looked around. It was getting pretty dark now. I looked back at her, she was good at walking backwards. She eventually started to walk forward again and hummed a bit.

"That was a nice nap. I feel much better now!" Lilac said and smiled back at me.

"Sure was. But, maybe it would have been better if we didn't have to wake up so fast."

We walked down the same street we also go down by. Birds were started to go into their nests and the houses nearby glowed with the lights from inside. Lilac was still lightly humming and it sounded like the Squid Sisters, one of their slower songs. She always gets pretty quiet when we're walking home. I looked up, the first stars are starting to come out in the darkening sky. They twinkled as they appeared. I looked back at Lilac who was just humming and saying around, sometimes even doing a fancy little two step every now and then. Funny how I was looking up at the stars, when the brightest star is right in front me.

Lilac then turned, smiling as she hummed but stopped when she saw me looking.

"What?" She simply said and looked rather confused. I guess I had a dumb smiling face on and didn't even notice. I tried to remain calm and cough it out, changing my expression. I blushed at her but hopefully it was dark enough for her not to see.

"Uh, nothin'. I wasn't," I started but I saw her expression change. Her eyes widened and she jumped back.

"Did ya see? I wasn't! I swear, I was just walkin' around!" She said as she stared at me, almost terrified. "I was just skippin' and stuff." She moved her hands in front of herself and shook her head. I stared at her for a while. Why is she overreacting like this?

"I didn't see what? You dancin'?" Right when I said that, she gave off a small yell. She covered her mouth with her tentacles, I guess not wanting to disturb anyone as she then looked around the houses. When she noticed that no one cared, she let go of her mouth and let out some air.

"What? What' so wrong about-?" I was about to continue but she looked up and still give me a scared expression. It almost looked like she was about to run away. She looked at me for a while before she looked down, staring at her feet. I didn't know what else to do, so I just stared at her.

Well, this is awkward. What was so bad about dancing? She's always moving around, how is this any different? Whatever it is, I'm not going to find it out today. I've never even seen her like this before and I'm starting to feel awful. I need to change the mood soon.

"Uhm, I, well...Oh! Jet and the guys asked me to join their Turf Team." I tried changing the subject and it must have worked since she immediately looked up with a smile.

"Wow! Really? That's so cool." she commented, finally coming closer to me.

"Yeah, but I don't know if I should join or not. Like, I haven't given them and answer." Once I said that, Lilac grabbed my hands and got close.

"You should totally do it! It'll be like fun! And I'll go and support ya guys! Like a cheerleader and stuff." She said and smiled at me.

"Uh, wait, really?" I asked as she still held my hands.

"Yeah!" She started to swing us around. "You guys will look so cool and I'll be there supportin' ya guys. You should like totally join." She eventually stopped and let go of my hands to stare at me and sway her body.

"I...uhm, I'll think about it a bit more." I responded in which she pouted at. It's scary how she acts like Rob sometimes. She started to walk again and I followed her. She was still pouting as she walked with her head up high. I couldn't help but laugh a little at her actions. She was a weird one. Getting afraid at something little in one second, then jumping up and down the next, and now pouting so much she can't see where she's going. Eventually, she almost tripped and she had to swing her arms and tentacles around to get some balance. Lilac eventually was able to get both of her feet on the ground and restored her balanced. She sheepishly looked back at me, most likely embarrassed about that but continued to pout. I couldn't help but let out a laugh, which in return, she did so as well.

Our journey continued for a couple more blocks until we reached our splitting spot.

"I guess," I started and looked towards my street, "I'll see you tomorrow at school." I looked back at her and she was spinning herself around.

"Yeah. And don't forget about tomorrow after school." She kept spinning around and then stopped to look at me. "And, you have to tell me first."

"First?"

"Yeah. On your decision about joining Jet. You have to tell me first if you join or not, okay?" She nodded towards me and waited for an answer.

"I promise. You'll be the first one I tell, alright?" I promised her and she smiled. She then started walking backwards down her street. She smiled as she did so and waved goodbye. I waved as well, standing there until she turned around and looked where she was going.

"Don't forget! Stay fresh!" Lilac finally turned around after waving one last time and started to skip her way towards her house. After seeing her get to about half a block away, and smiling like a dumbass at her for a while, I turned and went towards my street.

* * *

My fingers tapped onto my iSquid in the darkness; the light from my phone hitting me enough for me to squint at my screen. My glasses and hair tie were off, so I had the phone pretty close to my face and I was using a tentacle to cover the bright light.

 _'I'm in.'_

 _\- sent 10:18 pm_

 _'Alright bruh. lets meet up 2morro for some battles_

 _\- received 10:48 pm_

I was on my bed when this happened. I eventually started to think of Lilac in a cheerleader costume and it made me join in a split second. I think I did a wise decision. I looked over at my iSquid and started to listen to some music. I picked the file, 'Second try' and listened to it. I think it ended up well now. I was about to close my eyes when I remembered something.

 _'I got in'_

 _\- sent 11:01 pm_

I smiled as I typed that. I hope she's happy. Or asleep, it looked like she needed it anyways. This day was sure something but at least some of it was resolved at the end. As my eyes were closing, I thought what would happen tomorrow. Lilac wanted to play with random people but Jet wants to meet up. I guess we'll figure it out tomorrow. If Lilac really wants to go play, I would join her since I did tell her first. My eyes closed and I can feel my body getting heavy. I was waiting for her to respond, but it seem that she probably was asleep. I should get some rest soon.

With my eyes closed, I imagined Lilac again. Usually I think about her smile but tonight there is something else stuck in my mind. Her two feet moving from one spot to the other.

* * *

 **Hey! So, this was way longer than expected and I worked pretty hard on it. Uhm, I'm a bit tired of writing this out so thank you for reading. I hope to see you for the next chapter. Stay fresh!**

 **Fresh Word Dictionary**

 **Squidiette- Girl, also gets shortened as Squid**

 **Squid- a ton of stuff**

 **Playa- Boy. Not actually a player, like you know, a player.**

 ***a bunch of 'likes' and 'totally'**

 **Stay Fresh - stay cool and stuff**

 **If you see any mistakes, please tell me. Thanks.**

Update: 8/14- format errors and added info

Update: 9/24 - Added info

If any of you is interested in following my art blog, it is shikakunfan01 on tumblr. I'm actually trying to get back at drawing but I reblog more than I can draw. Some sketches and doodles of these little squids are up there and it would be cool if you check them out. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

I swiveled to the left as a burst bomb was heading straight at me. Orange ink had just missed me but I kept my gaze at the target. The guy that was throwing the bombs at me had hidden himself behind those giant pots at Arowana, unexpected that I was heading his way. I quickly sprayed some ink on the side of the pot and squid my way up on top of it. I saw him. He still hadn't noticed that I was on top, waiting for him. He then looked at the side, trying to see if I may have gone somewhere else. Now is my chance. I jumped down and swung my Ink brush around, releasing ink. He looked surprised and then he splatted away. I then started to ink up the area that he was hiding in and now it was covered in all blue ink. I squidded around, looking for my teammates only to hear the ending whistle. I got back to inkling form and I heard someone jumped down from the higher ledges. It was Jet. The screen came up from one the sides again, where Judd was seen dancing in front of the map we had just covered. A blue and orange gauge came up and started to fill itself up. Judd then took out a blue flag and pointed to our side of the gauge.

"Booyah!" I heard Rob say from somewhere else from the map. I heard footsteps come towards Jet and I; it was the other team. One came up to us, most likely the leader. He looked pretty fresh with his headphones and spiked up tentacles.

"Great match, man." He said, extending his arm out to Jet, who took it and shook it.

"You too. Almost didn't win there, bro." Jet commented and then let go.

"Yeah. Gotta look at that playa you got there. Saw him go head to head with my best bro." He smiled and was talking about me. "I saw how you sneak up on him, playa. Man, and we thought we didn't need to mind about ink brush users. Proved us wrong." He looked over to the guy I splatted at the end who he nodded at me and I did the same.

"See ya in another battle, playas." The orange team leader said and walked off, being followed by his team. I stared at them until I felt someone jump on me.

"Wooooooo! Man, ya got skills." Rob said as he patted me on the back and rested his arm on me. I looked over and saw that Jordan had joined us too.

"It was nothin'. Just needed to turf." I simply said as we started to walk out of the map.

"Man, he's so modest." Rob commented as he let go. We had arrived to the door which lead us outside.

"Good game," The older inkling boy said as he made sure everyone was out of the map. He was like security and knew many of the other turfers. We all nodded at him, said a few thanks, as Rob put up a thumbs up. We started heading out as it was our last battle of the day.

It has been a couple weeks since I've joined the team. We turf battle every few days, making sure that everyone was free. We've been winning most of our battles, perhaps 7 out of 10. Sometimes we got some mean teams, slaughtering us real bad. But it was rare when it was, though it still hurt to see the maps when it all ended. We've been playing every day this week though. It has been fun, my competitive side growing, but I felt a bit guilty in doing so.

I heard footsteps running towards us and then I felt someone grab both of my hands and tried swinging me around.

"That was so cool! You guys were on fire out there!" Lilac said as she made me swing around with her. She eventually stopped and faced the others guys as I tried to make sure I wasn't dizzy. "You guys are gettin' so good at this!"

"Thank-"

"Girl, we always been good." Rob interrupted Jet as he popped up from behind. I stared at them as my composure was well. They sure had gotten close since I started this team. Lilac had been to every single one of our battles, even to the practices. Sometimes, she even volunteers to help us by turfing with us. I'm glad the guys aren't jerks that leave her behind, but she hasn't gone to do an actual turf battle since she's been our so called 'cheerleader.'

"Jet! No one was able to touch you, man! Like, you were 'pow' and stuff. And then like, Hydro was like 'swish, swish'." She motioned her hands to look like she was swinging an ink brush. I then noticed that there was ink on her hands. Did she go battle? Don't think so. Oh, we didn't shake off the ink. We were all still covered in orange ink from the match. I was about to shake myself off when Lilac grabbed my hand.

"Wait! Not yet." She told me and then took out her phone. "Shellfie!" She smiled and then looked back at the guys. Jet sighed, he can't run away from her. Lilac raised her hand high, us moving ourselves behind her and facing her phone. I saw her put up her other hand near her face and got her hand ready on her phone.

"Stay fresh!" She took the pic and then let her hand down. She checked to make sure the picture came out well, which I think it did, and she then started to type something on her phone; probably going to post it up on Inkstagram or her Tumblr.

"Let me see!" Rob said as he got near her. I'm glad he's a bit shy when he's near her because he didn't get too close and basically stretched his way to see her phone. She first didn't show it to him and hid it as she took out her tongue at him, but she eventually let him see her phone.

"You came out with your eyes closed. Your eyes are closed." She giggled and then skipped away after showing it. I bit the inside of my cheek.

"What? Hey, let's take it again, squid!" Rob argued, a small blush appeared.

"Nope." Jet quickly said and walked in front of Rob to stop him from trying to get near her. She had skipped next to me and swayed her body. Lilac then looked over at me and showed me the pic. I had my neutral face on again, Jet had a clear frown, Jordan was well Jordan with his helmet, and Rob clearly had his eyes closed; and all of us were covered in orange and blue ink. Lilac was in the corner, her face just showing up, but it was definitely giving out her big smile and she had done a peace sign next to her right cheek.

"Alright, alright. Come on, playas." Jet said and started walking off towards our usual location on Fridays. Lilac then put her phone away and shook the little ink she had from being around us.

"Chow time!" She said and skipped in front of Jet. I shook of my ink, changed it back to my usual purple ink, and then followed behind. Today, Lilac had chosen to be blue with us, as we constantly got picked to be blue. I noticed Jet shaking off the ink as he walked. Jordan did as well while Rob stopped and shook it off. He then waited for me and walked beside me.

"Man, it's so hard being around this squid. She's such an angel, bro. Struck by the heavens." He told me and stared at Lilac. I sighed. I would have commented 'same' back but I don't know how Rob would react if he knew that we both had a crush on the same girl. So, I stayed quiet and simply nodded at him.

Lilac and I had been spending about the same time with each other, maybe less since I had to enter to the battles while she waited outside. But being said, she is now starting to spend more time with Rob as well. Clearly, his crush has grown for her, but Lilac is a pretty quiet squid. I don't know if she's just shy to tell me her crushes, she doesn't have any, or I'm a guy and she wouldn't tell those kinds of things; you now, girl things.

"Shut up, you cod fish!"

"Look who's talkin'! I'm not the one that's been brainwashed."

"You have the most freedom from all of us, yet you decide to not even think about helping us!"

"I'm not helping you? You're clearly squiddin' me, right? I've done so much-"

We all turned to pay attention to what the commotion was all about. Near the street way that went towards the Station, Luz and Rachel were seen arguing with each other. They seem to be real heated because they were yelling real loud, bothering the inklings nearby who have made space for them and stayed clear of them. I looked over at Lilac who had stopped skipping and now was biting her lip. She looked over at us and gave a weak smile.

"I'll...be right back." A nervous giggle escaped her lips before she ran towards the two and stepped right in between them. Lilac was telling both of them something, maybe to calm down and to talk stuff out or something. From there, Luz was seen pointing at Rachel and saying something about her, and in return, Rachel did the same. Lilac then looked over at Rachel and told her something. Luz nodded and it didn't seem that Rachel was too happy about it. She said some other stuff to Lilac and then at Luz, who looked dumbfounded by whatever Rachel said. Luz then brought her hands up to her shoulders, shook her head, said some few last words, and then walked away to the Booyah Base stores. Lilac and Rachel watched her leave; Lilac was clearly not happy while Rachel still looked mad and had crossed her arms. Lilac then looked over at Rachel and said some few things. Rachel huffed and shot something back. Lilac looked down a bit and then up at her again to say one more thing. Rachel didn't seem happy at all because she just started stomped away.

"Daddy's girl!" Rachel yelled at Lilac. Lilac seem real hurt now. She stared at Rachel, leaving towards the station, before she looked down and brought her hands to her face. Is she crying? I was about to run towards her, and it seem like Rob was too, before Jet placed an arm in front of us.

"Hold up." He said.

I looked over at him. I have gotten used to him doing this. He had like a sixth sense that none of us did and it freaked me out when he does this. I looked back at Lilac and saw a familiar squid run towards her. It was Koral. She looked at Lilac and placed a hand onto her hand. Lilac then wiped something off of her face, most likely tears, and it seemed like she smiled at Koral. Koral then told her some few things, Lilac nodded at her, and then Koral took out something out of her bag. A small bag was taken out and was given to Lilac, who just stared at it. Koral then said something, hugged her, and then went towards the Booyah Base stores too. Lilac stayed there, staring at Koral leave, and then stared at the bag. After a few seconds, she started to walk towards us. She still had her head down until she reached us and then looked up at me; her eyes were clearly wet from tears and were slightly puffing up.

"Ya guys wanna go play at the arcade for a bit?" She said as she lifted up the bag and jingled it: coins. It was real quiet with all of us. None had said anything and, seeing that Jet hasn't, maybe I shouldn't ask right now. I couldn't help but stare at her eyes that had just been filled with tears. Her pink eyes stared back, not fazed that we knew that she had just cried.

"What?" She said, clearing the silence. "Koral always gives me coins. I dont know why, she just does. But its okay, I pay her back, kinda. I take her to eat and sometimes I go shoppin' with her, ya know. So, come on! It won't take long. We can eat after. We can eat after." Lilac started to skip towards the arcade which was near Big G's pizzeria. Jet followed her with a sigh and Jordan was behind him, silent. I looked over at Rob, who was just staring at Lilac skip away.

"Come on," he eventually said and started to walk. He definitely seemed stressed about the situation. I followed and stared at Lilac. This whole squid drama is getting out of hand. Whatever it is between those two squids, they really should resolve it soon because it's just putting Lilac down too. But she's a strong one. Being able to change her act so it wouldn't bother us is something, though, I wish she would have tried telling us something. Maybe later. Perhaps she just didn't want to tell the crowd about the problem, especially Jet who seems like the most tired one about this.

'Daddy's girl'. That's what seem to set it all off. Sure, she was sad at the whole ordeal but once Rachel said that, it looked like a truck hit her. It wasn't until then that Lilac had nothing to say other than cry out in the open. Maybe that's why she hasn't said anything. She doesn't want to explain why she was crying. But this only supports what Jordan and the guys were talking about that one day. Something is going on between these three, maybe four with Koral, parents that's not letting them be normal Inklings. With all the commotion that Rachel was letting out, Luz is 'brainwashed' by her parents and Rachel rebels since she has the 'most freedom' from all the girls. Though, whatever is going with their individual parents sure is impacting all of them.

By the time I snapped out of this analysis, we had arrived to Game Ink arcade. Lilac was standing in between the self-opening doors, swaying and waving at us.

"Come on, slowpokes." She said and waited. We were still in the edge, not knowing what we should do. We all entered quietly. There was inklings everywhere, playing extensively on some games. The room was neon since the light was black lit to make all the games pop out. There were some rhythm games to the right where some Inkling have gathered to cheer on to the player. It also seem like a new game was installed and many Inklings were huddled near it. Some racing games towards the middle with a couple of air hockey tables, they were in front of the Foosball alleys. By the side were crane games and other games like basketball hoop games and other sport related games, and those chance games where you have to keep your eyes on the light and make sure you stop it on the right time.

Lilac came up to us and opened her bag.

"There's like a bunch of coins. Just grab a few and stuff." She told us and moved the bag near us. Jet was the first one to get coins and he immediately walked toward the racing games. Jordan grabbed some and went towards some football games. Rob stood there for a bit and stared at Lilac. She stared at him back and raised the coins at him more.

"I'll just...follow and grab when I need some, kay?" He said and looked away. It was real quiet, something I've never seen from him. She nodded, smiled at him, and then looked over at me. I can still see a bit of pain in her expression even though it was smiling.

"Same." I replied. I'll rather not leave her at this state.

"Okie dokie. Uhm..." She started as she closed the bag, she seemed a bit shy at continuing of what she was saying. "Can we, like, go over there?" She said and pointed where the crowd was. I nodded, though I didn't want to because I hate crowds, but I did say I would follow.

"Yeah, come on." Rob replied and started to walk before us. Lilac followed and so did I. We arrived to the crowd and noticed the title of the new game; Fresh Fresh Revolution. There was two of the machines next to each other which had screens facing the player. A bar was behind the player while there were a bunch of arrows on the bottom that glowed. From what I've heard, the basics of the game is to step on the arrows that match whatever comes on the screen and dance to it or something. Currently, there was only one player on one of the arrow pads and he was smiling to the crowd.

"Now who thinks they are fresh enough to go against me, huh?" The guy told the crowd. He looked like any Inkling around. Pretty fresh clothes, tentacles were purple and were spiked up; his weapon bag was on the side of machine. He had a cocky smile and continued to stare at the crowd. "No one is fresh enough to go against the mighty Caesar?"

"Dude, you go up?"

"What? Squid nah! You saw that playa. He's mad pro, man."

It seem that this guy was real good and no one wanted to go against him. I felt someone get real close against me. I looked over and saw it was Lilac. I tried not to blush. She looked really concentrated as she stared at Caesar.

"Uhm, Lilac?" I asked, wondering why she was so close, but she wasn't paying attention. Caesar had a very confident smirk as he looked over at the crowd. He then pointed at some few squids.

"Come on, ya look slightly fresh enough to go against me." He raised an eyebrow and noticed that he was saying this to a girl, who did look pretty fresh with her street style hat on. "Winner gets a kiss from the loser." Now, we all know his intentions with this. The girl squid frowned and shook her head, where he shrugged at her.

"I try to make things interesting and you're all to scared? I know no one can beat me but you should at least entertain me a bit and try." This jerk kept going and stared at the crowd, the music bumping behind him. I looked over at Lilac who was still staring at him.

"Come on! Are you all scaredy zapfish?" Caesar kept mocking the crowd. There, I saw Lilac pout and take off her stuff.

"It's just a game." she said.

"What?" I asked, confused by what she had just said. She didn't seem to listen because she grabbed some coins and gave me her weapon's bag and unexpected Rob the coin bag. She then proceeded to go through the crowd, excusing herself and apologizing. She eventually got the front and took the arrow pad next to the guy. She started to place her coins into the slot while people cheered on that somebody finally got up there.

"Oh? Little squidette?" Caesar looked at Lilac and checked her out. This made my blood boil. Lilac is a bit on the chunky side, but since she wears her hoodie it's not that noticeable. But she does have a bottom that pops out and the shorts really don't help in hiding that. That's what this jerk kept staring at.

"That perv." It seem that Rob had noticed too as he growled this near me.

"So, you're gonna go against me, squid? Gotta be careful, I'm real good at this game." He smirked at her as she adjusted her hat.

"We'll see how good you really are, playa." Lilac replied and it made the crowd talk.

"Damn! Ya heard that."

"Squid is gone get it!"

"Kick his bass, girl!"

"Alright. Alright. I'm a gentlesquid, so you get to pick the song." He said, not fazed by the mock. He smirked at her and gave her one more look. Lilac wasn't paying attention to him as she looked over at the songs that were on the screen. She moved her feet on the arrows, as they were the control pad, and picked hard mode.

"Oh, hard mode. Think you can go up to it, squid?" This guy just doesn't stop.

"We'll see how up your ego will be after this song." Lilac said sweetly and smiled over at him. Caesar was finally getting it and he frowned at her.

"Told ya good!" Rob said from the back and other comments were heard.

"Gonna pick a song yet, squid?" This time he asked her harshly. She moved her foot to look over at the songs. She then looked over at him and pointed at the screen.

"This one, playa. Get ready." Lilac lastly said and waited for him to move his screen to the same song. I squinted at the screen and noticed that the album cover of the song she picked was the Squid Sisters. The song was heard to give a sample of which song it was and it sounded like the pretty popular song by the Squid Sisters that has been playing a lot lately.

Things started to feel intense. The crowd had quiet down as the two got into position, staring forward to the screen with feet positioned on the grid. Lilac was seen tip toeing a bit, probably stretching before the song started. They then both chose the song at the same time. The cover of the song expanded to the whole screen and then disappeared after a few seconds. The screen had now changed and it had a blue background. From where I stood, I could barely see the arrows that resembled the stage near the top of the screen and next to it looked like a point gauge.

I looked over at Caesar, who now had his grin back. He then said something to Lilac but she didn't respond back and was staring right at the screen.

The song then began playing, starting out slow. At this time, a few arrows were seen popping up on the screen and both of them got them easily; they moved their feet to the corresponding arrows. Lilac moved her arms a bit with the music, doing some few moves that the Squid Sisters have been seen doing while Caesar didn't.

The song started to change slowly and then it got to the pretty bumping part. That's when it all changed. More arrows started to appear on the screen and their feet started to work. The crowd started to cheer while some danced to the rhythm of the music. I was amazed that the two were able to keep up with the arrows that were appearing. Lilac seem to be pretty concentrated at the song, her feet moving to hit the arrows but it wasn't just plain stepping on them, it looked like she was dancing to the music while doing so. While Caesar looked like he was just stomping away, and seem to be having a bit of trouble catching up, Lilac was grooving while stepping on the respective arrows. Hips swayed, shoulders lose, arms moving forward and to the side like the Squid sisters, Lilac seem to have practice this song a lot. Caesar on the other hand was just holding on the railing behind him and was trying to hit the arrows that were coming up. Sometimes, I noticed that he would look over to Lilac with wide eyes, but that only made him miss a few points.

Lilac seem to be having fun. As she stepped forward, she moved her torso forward and then moved her head to the side where she then rolled her shoulder back for when she had to step back. She then moved to the side, where she moved her arms forward and then brought them back and then motioned her right arm to flow forward and then to the side. Then she brought it back, resting her wrist onto her forehead for a bit before moving her hand to the back, getting her right tentacle and flipping it while flicking her hand to the right. It impressed me that she was doing this with ease while still getting the points from moving her feet.

The song continued and many people starting cheering.

"Girl has skill!"

"You go, squid! Sway them hips."

"Damn, she's quick! Look at them moves!"

"Caesar finally met his match, ha!"

Lilac was seen doing some Squid Sister moves as she bent forward a bit, receiving a blush from me, and then moved from left to the right as her hands were near her face. She must have practiced beforehand because someone that didn't know when the arrows would slow down in this part of the song would have known to do that move at that time. The two were seen to start to slow down, the song probably about to finish. As the song was nearing the end, Lilac jumped, twisted herself, and landed on the last two arrows that she had to step on. In doing so, she quickly stroke the Squid Sister's famous pose, bending one leg, one arm lifted and the other one near her chest as hands dangled from them.

The crowd roared as the scores were tallied up behind them. Caesar looked a bit beaten down, as if he wasn't expecting such a hard song and for Lilac to not be affected by it at all.

"Damn! Lilac got it down!" I heard Rob cheer as he smiled towards her. Lilac smiled at the crowd until she looked back at the screen, there here points were up. 25,858 was what kept flashing on her screen. She jumped up when she saw the score and as the screen signaled her to write her initials, she proudly did so and put down "Li". In the commotion of happiness, Caesar was awestruck as she stared at her points. His screen flashed 18,386 which wasn't near a top score, so he couldn't write his initials.

"Yeah!'

"Squid got moves!"

"Looks like Caesar has been dethroned!"

When Lilac was done swaying happily at the screen and taking a picture of it with her phone, she looked over to Caesar and flashed him a smile. He was still in shock at how good she was that he couldn't do anything but stare. She then prompted herself off of the machine to come where we were at. Lilac skipped her way towards us as people congratulated her. She would skip slower and say her thank yous, a shy smile would come over whenever someone would tell her a compliment. She eventually got to us, only to be showered by more compliments.

"That was so amazink, squid! You slaughtered that playa mean time!" Rob said as he got closer to her, but not too close as he was still shy of being with her. Lilac smiled and scratched the back of her head.

"Oh, it was nothin', ya know." She then looked over at the game again where Caesar was still on, clearly in shock. We started to walk as she explained. "He was bummin' me down. Thinkin' he was, like, better than everysquid. Anyone can dance against him, but he placed himself in a high sea horse that was eventually goin' to knock him out."

It seems that Lilac wasn't big with people with inflated egos. That sort of explains when she would remark back at Rob whenever he tried to gloat.

"Still, you did real well. Did you practice that?" I asked. She turned to me and her smile went away. She seemed a bit agitated and looked around. She brought up another smile again and a small laugh.

"Me? No. I just, I've seen it before and I remembered the steps; I remembered. Just luck that I remembered them all and that I was able to follow the arrows well." Lilac replied. I raised my eyebrow and I could see that Rob wasn't buying it either. Even if the best memory in the world, you can't remember all the steps for that song. Not only that, but she moved as she was dancing. If she was just following the arrows, she would have just moved her feet instead of all of those arm movements and fancy foot work. Lilac continued to look away until her eyes moved towards the coins she made Rob hold.

"Oh, hey! We have tons of coins left. Let's go...Hmm. Oh! Let's go play air hockey!" She quickly turned the conversation over. She grabbed her bag that I was holding and then proceeded to skip over to the other games. I stood there, staring at her. It happened again. The same thing that happened a couple weeks ago when she was dancing around in front of me, but instead of her freaking out like last time, she was able to just ignore it and go out in her own way. Though, I still think it's bothering her, whatever it is. It seem that Rob took a notice too because he kept quiet while holding onto the coins.

"This is the second time." I told him quietly, he was staring down. Was it okay for me to share this info with him?

"You too?" When he said that, I raised an eyebrow at him. "She did somethin' similar when I first met her. Squid has somethin' up."

"Hey, anytime!" Lilac was seen raising her hand, keeping an air hockey table safe for us. Rob sighed as he looked over at her and gave a smile.

"Come on, man. Save this for later." I said and patted his shoulder as I started to walk toward where Lilac was. We both got to her, a bit uneasy by how our conversation went before hand. We both know that Lilac was a bit funny, but this was a bit different.

"Okay, okay. Who wants to go first?" She went over to one side of the hockey table and waited for one of us to go. We both stared at each other and shrugged. We were both too polite for this and the tension about Lilac's actions made us both wary to continue. He stared at me and quickly glanced at the Lilac; I think he's too nice to tell me that he really wants to play.

"Uhm, you go, bro." I told Rob. "You have the coins anyways." If I didn't say anything, we would probably had stared at each other for hours.

"Ya sure, playa? Ya don't wanna go first?" Rob asked as he jingled the bag. He was trying to be nice but I can see that it pained him to be.

"Sure, man. Like, I'll go against the winner or something." I told them and placed my weapon bag nearby. Rob nodded, placed his bag down, and placed a coin into the coin slot, leaving the coin bag settled nearby; the hockey mallets started to move around by themselves. Then a thud was heard and Rob reached over to his side to get the puck. He placed it on the table and it moved by itself for a bit by the air pushing it up. Lilac grabbed her mallet and took a ready position as she waited for Rob to hit it. Rob then grabbed his mallet, getting in the same ready position as Lilac. For now, it seems to be much better if these two calm themselves. I can relax myself pretty well, but these two, Lilac with the drama and Rob for trying to help Lilac, seem to have it harder.

"I'm a pretty good air hockey playa. So, ya better get ready." He smirked at her and she smiled back. I did a small smile, seems to be going well for now.

"Well, let's check it, playa. We won't know until we finish this game." She replied back. They both gave each other a stare down, in the same position; every few seconds, one would move one finger a millimeter or two.

It was perhaps a minute or two and they were still staring at each other, very seriously, in the same ridiculous position. I was starting to get tired, waiting for this to start and noticed the bag of coins on the side of the table where the air can't hit it. I looked behind me, seeing that the racing game nearby was by itself.

"I'm going to go... play some races." I said and grabbed a couple coins from the bag.

"Alright," Lilac looked over to me and smiled. At that moment, Rob went towards the puck and hit it towards the goal. It caught Lilac off guard and she gave a small squeal but she was able to push her mallet and block his attack. She then hit the puck and sent it flying to Rob, who blocked it too. They kept going, blocking, hitting, and doing fancy poses as they do so. I decided this was going to take longer than their stare down and took my coins to the racing game nearby. I took a seat on the game, and pulled on the bar under the seat to bring it closer to the steering wheel; whoever was playing before sure had long legs. I placed the two coins into the slots and let the game begin. It started on the Start screen and I had to press the horn button to begin. From there, I had to choose a car. I viewed the selection of cars and picked one that was painted candy purple; it looked like a Charger but it was a little taller, perhaps it was the ridiculous wheels it had. The screen then changed to the first course that I had to play. While the screen was loading, I looked over to see Lilac and Rob just still going at it.

2...

1...

Go!

I quickly looked over to my screen and stepped on the gas pedal. Shouldn't have gotten distracted and now I'm starting in a bad place. I kept racing the game, glancing over at Lilac for half a second to make sure she was okay. She seemed okay. She was smiling whenever I glanced over and it looked like she was having fun.

"Take that!"

"Nice shot, squid. But not as nice as this one!"

"Whoa!"

I won the course in First place. I'm pretty used to playing these games and the first courses are always the easiest. Since I won, I was able to advance to the second map. While the second map was loading, I saw someone walk behind my seat and towards the Air Hockey table. I quickly glanced over to my game to see if it was still loading, and thankfully it was. I looked over to see who it was and it was Luz, Koral not too far behind but not interested in watching the two play compared to Luz.

3...

2...

Damn, guess I can't see what it happening unless I want to lose.

Go!

I played the race but also tried to see if anything was going on with Luz. For now, it seems that all she is doing is observing. I kept hearing clicks and taps from the hockey table, most likely from all of the mallet hitting those two were doing,

"Hey, Luz." I heard Lilac said, but it was very soft. I didn't hear a response so perhaps Luz had nodded. I stared at my screen, moving the steering wheel to the left and pressing on the breaks lightly. I saw a shadow appear on my screen and I quickly looked over to see that Koral had come over to observe.

"Whoa, there." Rob said, maybe Lilac had almost got him but he probably stopped in time.

"Almost got ya there, playa." Luz gave a small laugh and continued her observing. I gripped the steering wheel, my palms getting sweaty. I was a bit nervous that Luz had arrived. Was she going to brew up some trouble again? And if she does, will Lilac be safe? Being so, if I did have to talk some sense into Luz, I might have to lose my first place in this racing game. This map eventually ended and I passed it. I sighed when it was clear and quickly looked over at Luz. She was still observing, but she had inched herself a bit forwards towards the table, resting her palms on the sides. Lilac and Rob still looked as intense as they were when I left them.

"It's okay." I heard a quiet voice say. I looked over to my other side and saw Koral adjusting her glasses as she stared at the screen. "She's not goin' to cause a ruckus today."

I stared at her for a bit. I guess I was showing I was worried by how I was virtually driving and my fidgets. I guess I was an open book when it came to these things, but even with that, I still worried about the situation. I don't really know Luz and she didn't leave a great impression on me last time. At school, she didn't act much. She would always act like any other girl around, probably not wanting to lose her reputation at school; she is loved by the rest of the girls for her beauty.

As the new map was loading, I finally heard Luz talk again.

"Squid, we got trouble." Luz said, a bit lower than usual and I was able to quickly turn to see her look all around. Rob got a bit serious and took a few glances at the two girls. I looked back the screen and got ready but I made sure my ears were all to the air hockey table area.

"Hm?" It sounded like Lilac, but it was real low.

1...

Go!

I gripped the steering wheel and moved it so.

"The walls have ears, squid." Luz continued in the ruckus of the games nearby and the hits by Lilac and Rob's mallet by the puck. "One of our parents, probably mine, has someone lookin' out for us."

Lilac gasped, either from the news or from Rob almost getting the goal this time.

"Is that how they know? Dad's been askin' a lot of questions lately." Lilac commented back and continued to play.

"Yeah. I found out today. Koral noticed someone that was getting a bit too close. Ear shot close. And it wasn't someone that adored me, they didn't look like it. It, like, looked too suspicious so I called them out and they booked it." Luz continued explaining.

I grabbed the steering wheel tightly, this course got a bit trickier, or maybe it was because of these news. Not that they concerned me, but it made me worry for Lilac. How is there someone looking out at them? And what kind of information are they telling to the fathers of these girls?

"There's a real sharp turn in a bit. Be careful." Koral said next to me. Seems like she's really into these games.

Clink.

I looked over as I heard something drop into on the goals.

"Darn..."

"Told ya I was good, squid." Rob said excitedly. I looked over at Lilac who had a smile on her face, happy at Rob's reaction, but probably worried about this 'spy'? I guess that's what it is.

"Careful."

I looked back due to Koral's remark and I just missed hitting the mountain side on this map. I decided to keep my eyes on the road now.

"I'll get you this time!" I heard Lilac and then what I think was her putting the puck on the table again and hitting it. She might be trying to lighten up the mood.

"Whoa, there."

I hit the brakes and sighed. I got second place thanks to me getting distracted. I shrugged and added my name to the winner's roster. HYD, since that's all that fits. I was in the top 20, so I guess that was good enough for this. I took another sigh and got off. Right when I did so, Koral got in and placed her coins in and started a new game. She looked very determined. I decided to stand there for a bit and see if I can listen to anything else without intruding.

Koral picked a red car with smaller wheels than the other one I picked. She didn't even look through the other cars, perhaps she's played this before.

"So what are we gonna do?" Lilac broke the silence.

"I have no idea. Can't confront my parents. Ya know they'll just, like, deny it. But if they do admit to it, they'll, like, just ignore me and say it's for my own good. And I don't think you'll be able to." Luz replied and sighed.

"Nah." Lilac sounded a bit down.

"We'll all got it rough. Rachel will just get into another argument and Koral will be shut down if she even thinks about tryin'."

"Just gotta... deal with it ourselves, I guess." Lilac answered back.

Clink.

"Two to zero." Rob said, not with much excitement as the first time.

"Guess you are good, playa." A giggle came out of Lilac; probably another effort to lighten the mood. She then took out the puck and placed it on the table again. Lilac hit the puck lightly this time, starting the game soft. From there on, it was real quiet. Even Rob seem to have calmed down, feeling the atmosphere within this. This day just keeps getting salty. Whatever is happening, all of these girls have a problem with it and yet, none of them can fix them. It's like they can't turn to anyone at all. Sounds real sad. Parents are the ones that you're supposed to go to when you need help, but it seems that they can't at all.

"Alright." I looked behind the seat to see Jet in his usual mood. "We all look like we need somethin' to eat." Was he nearby? He is one of those observant kinds. Or maybe he is psychic.

"Yeah! Food!" Rob said as he looked over at Jet.

Clink! Rob looked over to hockey table and then at Lilac. She was grinning wide.

"Wha- Hey! C'mon! That's not fair." He told her, upset that she had scored on him while he was distracted.

"Whatevs! You won anyways. Two to one. Two to one!" She explained and showed him two fingers to explain herself more. She giggled at him and then grabbed her bag that was next to her.

"Oh, hey Jet." Luz said softly and smiled at him, very different from before.

"Luz." He was about to walk away but then nodded towards her to follow him. She smiled and gladly followed.

"Oh. Not the best. But this is fine." I heard Koral say. I looked over and saw that she had finished the three courses I did, and an extra course, and got second place in the top 10 winners. I stood there for a few seconds. I was at the bottom of the list while her initials of KOR were blinking almost at the top. She must be a champ at racing games. Her score was way higher than mine and she finished them on record timings. I looked at who was the Top winner. The initials had LEO.

"Playa! Why you always behind?" I looked over to see Rob smiling at me. It seems that everybody went ahead while I was staring at Koral's score. "Come on, bro." He motioned for me to go with them and then started walking ahead. I went over to grab my weapon bag.

I started to leave when I looked back to see if anyone had left anything. All clear. I was about to turn to face forward when I saw someone go towards the hockey table. It was a guy. He had green tentacles and they were slicked back. I wouldn't have thought much of it, it being an arcade and all, but this guy kept staring at me. He rested this palms on the table and just stared at me. It creeped me out a bit. He then moved his eyes toward the side of me, I went to look and it was my group, way ahead of me. Was this guy that 'spy' that Luz was talking about? I stopped and was about to confront the guy but when I turned back to look at him, he was gone. Now that was real suspicious. But, it's not like I could do much about it now. I did a small jog to reach them, but not before I looked back one last time to the air hockey table.

We got to Big G's in no time. We took our regular seating in one of the curved booths. Rob ran in first and took one of the sides. Lilac followed and sat next to him. Jordan took the other side and sat on the other side of Rob; he took off his helmet and placed it under his seat. I was about to sit down next to Lilac when I noticed Koral by me.

"Go in." I told her and she quietly thanked me. Lilac hugged Koral as she sat by her. Seeing that there wasn't much space, I went over to an empty table and grabbed a chair to place on the outside of the booth. When I came back, Luz was standing and looking up at Jet who looked a bit bothered. They stayed quiet, staring at each other for a bit until Jet sighed.

"Go." He motioned her to take the last space of the booth, next to Jordan, while he went to do the same as I. When he came back and adjusted his seat to the edge, where I was as well, he looked towards the front where the cashier was. He whistled at the anemone and nodded at him. The sea anemone nodded at him back and then went to the back to go make the usual for us.

As we sat, Lilac was having a conversation with Rob.

"But, it wasn't, like, my fault ya took your eyes off of the puck. I had total, like, control over getting a goal off of ya." She explained and smiled at him. A small blush rose up his face as he frowned.

"Still think it's unfair, though, squid." He mumbled, clearly salty by the situation.

"You still won!" She giggled and shook her head. She probably thinks this is all too silly. I couldn't help but feel a bit hurt by this interaction. Sure, she was happy, but it seems that she just keeps getting closer to Rob and less to me. They're always laughing and having fun and whenever she's with me, she's always trying to make me laugh, but I'm just a bit too serious at times. But I guess at this moment it is alright. I'll rather be seeing her genuinely happy than acting weird like before.

"Well, I guess I'll let this one slide, squid. Just 'cause ya have some sweet dancing, uhm..." Rob stopped himself and looked a bit surprised that he didn't catch himself in time. He turned to me, trying not to make eye contact with Lilac. It was like he broke a silent oath we had about not bringing up the topic that made Lilac act weird.

"Dance?" Luz asked and looked over Lilac, whose cheeks were turning a bit blue. "You danced, Lilac?" I looked over at Luz. Could she stop? Didn't she see that it was making Lilac uncomfortable? Jet, like always, saw me and raised an eyebrow at me. Damn psychic Jet.

"Well, yeah." Lilac said, she was looking at Rob, who looked real sorry about the situation, and then at Luz. "But it was just that Fresh Fresh Revolution thing. Koral told me that it was there." Lilac bit her lip and then looked at Koral who nodded at Luz.

"Well, that's nice. That thing is, like, real fun. It is a game at an arcade. Nothin' much. Not a problem." Luz was saying this real calm and sweet like. Was she trying to comfort Lilac? And what is this thing about it only being a game? Lilac said that too before she went up. I looked over at Lilac and she had looked up at Luz and smiled. She looked much more relax than when she was a few seconds ago.

"Yeah! Totally, ya know." Lilac replied and gave a small giggle. She was back to normal. "There was this guy with, like, a big ego and stuff. I totally slaughtered him. Ya should have seen his face!" She giggled again and moved her head side to side.

"I bet it was hilarious, squid." Luz added and smiled. This was completely different than usual. Luz was in an actual good mood and wasn't putting anyone down. In fact, she was raising them up. I raised an eyebrow and then noticed Jet, who was staring at me and he nodded slightly. How does he do this?

"I bet he didn't see it coming." Koral said silently.

"Nope! He was a big perv though. He kept lookin' me up, like, that's not cool, ya know." Lilac pouted. Rob frowned and nodded.

"Like, there was a crowd around it too, but that playa had no decency." He commented with furrowed eyebrows. Luz then stood up and placed her hands on the table. Her face had changed and she looked like she was going to murder someone.

"Tell me who he is and where he is, because I'll make sure he won't be able to see anyone or anythink ever again." Luz told Lilac. Lilac, wide eyed, raised her hands up and moved them to indicate Luz to sit down.

"It's cool. Can't be gettin' violent here. It seems that Rachel is rubbin' off ya, squid." Lilac tried to calm down her friend. Poor Jordan and Rob were in the middle of this. Rob looked from Luz to Lilac and then back to Luz, while Jordan just stared forward but glanced slightly to Lilac when she mentioned Rachel. Luz started to sit down slowly and when she did, she cleared her throat, sat straight, and then smiled at Jet and then looked at Lilac where her fake smile let down.

"Don't remind me of her right now, especially about what happened earlier. Sorry ya had to go through that, squid." She gave a sympathetic frown at her and then looked at Jet and I. "And sorry that ya had see that."

"It's good." Jet simply said and glanced at her. She shyly smiled at him and then looked down, probably embarrassed by his stare.

"Squid was real loud." Rob added. He had a frown on his face and his arms were crossed. He's probably a bit salty about what had happened to Lilac at the end. I noticed Jordan looking at Rob from the side.

"She's pretty loud when she's angry, ya know. I don't blame her, but she gets real salty, real fast. And, I kinda lost my cool too." Luz admitted. Lilac was still swaying her head back and forth as she listened to everyone, not really saying anything.

"She doesn't listen." Koral, next to me, added.

"She was a bit salty at..." Luz took a moment to continue and looked at Lilac for a bit. "At our situation. Ya know, that we weren't doin', like, as much as her. Got real angry. This is like the third time this week." As she finished this, everybody had eyes on her and she clearly knew about it. I don't know if she was uncomfortable or not fazed by it because she stared at as, one by one, very seriously.

"Well? You all look like you want to ask me somethin'?" Luz broke the silence as she looked over at all of us. She seem a bit nervous but tried to hide it with her strong demeanor. Her head was high up, trying to make herself seem bigger than us.

"We just don't want trouble." Jet answered her and she looked over at him.

"It's not trouble. If you want to know, like, you should know. You look, like, real anxious to know. Not like I'll kill ya by knowin'." She explained. Lilac was sitting there looking at Luz. "Besides, it's not like no one knows about it. Everyone knows somethin' is up."

"Tell us then. Tell us why y'all salty about," Jet replied. He sat back and placed his hand over his mouth as he waited for her to talk. She looked over at him and then at the table. Had she regretted saying that out loud?

"Well, as you know, my mother is the top designer for Tentatek." She started. Clearly, I didn't know and I was probably the only one surprised by this. That might explain why she looked so fresh. "And daddy, is well, he's there for now. Owning stocks and all after his ranking days. Well, they decided," she stopped and took a deep breath. "That I'm going to be a designer too. So, they're building me up for this. It was mother's idea, of course. And being a designer is, like, real cool and all but, I don't want to do that. I want to," she bit her lip, "I want to do other stuff." She gave a small laugh. This was clearly hurting her. "I told mother and daddy, but they are set clear that I will be a designer and that I shouldn't do anything related to what I really want to do." She cleared her throat. She then looked over at Jet. "But this doesn't matter much, just background info. I just don't like keepin' things in."

"See, Rachel is in kinda the same sitch, kinda; you can ask her about her own problem. She, well, you know how she is. She fights back and gets into arguments with her parents constantly about wanting to do what she wants to do and not what her parents wants her to do. I did too, in the beginning, but they would start doing stuff like, not letting me use the WiFi or cuttin' off my phone." I raised an eyebrow at that. Was that really a big issue here?

"It's not like I couldn't live with it, but then they wouldn't let me go out with Lilac and they would pick me up from school so I wouldn't go out and do things I wanted to do. And I got scared, I'll admit it. And well, I guess I'm going to be a designer. Rachel doesn't like that. She wants me to fight, but I'm scared of what would happen if I do again." Luz tried looking calm but she did look uncomfortable. She glanced to Lilac and then the table and then to her lap. "But ya know how Rachel is," she then looked over at Jordan. "She's persistent; and we got into a fight about it. She's always telling me and the other girls that we're weak and we should fight back against our parents. It sure sounds mean, but we know she means well. But squid has an anger issue." She then looked over at Lilac. "And I'm sorry for what she said to ya, squid. Koral told me. That was, like, real unnecessary of her, ya know."

"It's fine. Not a big deal. Not like I haven't heard it before." Lilac gave a weak smile that broke my heart, and clearly Rob's as well by his pained expression. Though, I don't know why it hurt her, I know that she shouldn't be used to hearing it. "She doesn't mean it. She's just mad at the moment. She always comes back to apologize."

It got real quiet after that. We all just sat there for about a minute; quiet. I looked over at Jet who was still in the same position. After the minute, he sat up and moved his hand away from his mouth.

"So, what do you wanna be, huh squid?" He asked. Luz looked over at him, wide eyed. Was she not expecting someone to care about what she wanted? She had opened her mouth, not sure to say something or by habit, when she then got interrupted.

"Hello, squiddos!" Jax, the anemone that worked at this pizzeria, came over and placed two pizzas down on the table while holding a jar with our drinks, cups, and plates. He was a tall anemone with big blue tentacles, or that's what I think they are; a silent white fish was often seen hiding in them. He has a pretty fresh style, clearly goes to visit Annie often. His bright blue eyes pop out against his dark skin. When he talks, he keeps his _'s_ ' much longer than he's supposed to.

"Alrighty! One pepperoni and one anchovies pizza. Drinks are here, I brought extra cups since I saw you squids come in." After he placed everything on the table, he stood there and placed his hand on his hip. "How are ya, squid? I haven't seen you in, like, forever." He was facing Luz.

"Oh, me. Just you know, doin' my thing. Been gettin' a bit...busy." Luz smiled, but it looked forced.

"Oh, I see. Well, you are lookin' as fresh as ever, squid. If only I had some ounce of your freshness." He giggled. "Jordan over there sure doesn't need any more freshness. He has all that he needs." Jax had winked at Jordan, who looked away and frowned a little.

"Oh! Lilac! You're such a pretty color today. Though, I really love you in pink. It suits you so well." Jax moved his attention to Lilac, who giggled.

"Thanks! But I had to support the team today." She made a peace sign towards him and smiled.

"Yeah, I've heard ya guys are gettin' good. Y'all been talked about. That new fresh team with the cute boys. Y'all have some fans, playas." He smirked and lightly hit me on the shoulder. "Think of finally entering ranking? Or maybe competitive turfing? I heard there's a competition coming soon. Y'all popularity will sky rocket if ya do."

"Nah, we're good. We need to think about how good we are, rather than how many squids want us." Jet said as looked up at the flamboyant sea anemone, who smiled and shrugged at him.

"Same ol' Jet! Not really thinking 'bout squidettes. Well, I have to go do my job." Jax was about to leave, patting himself before looking up at us again. "Are you squids okay or do ya need anythin' else?"

"Oh! Uhm, yeah. Actually, I am craving some potato wedges. Can ya bring some for us?" Luz said and smiled at Jax.

"Coming right up, squid. I'll be right back." Jax said as he left. After he moved away, it was a bit quiet. No one talked. Lilac looked at Luz and Jet, Luz ignored Jet who was staring at her, Rob and Jordan were trying not to make eye contact, and Koral was staring at the pizza. It seems that Luz was trying to forget about being asked the question and if no one was going to bring it up, she wasn't either. So much for not liking to keep things in.

"Well, let's eat! I'm starving, ya know." Lilac broke the silence with a giggle. She reached over to get the paper plates. She grabbed a few, handing some to the people closest to her which were Jordan, Rob, and Koral. She wasn't able to reach me, so she gave it to Koral to pass it. Luz had nodded and reached for a plate too and after, Jet grabbed his.

"Squid, can ya pass me some pepperoni slices?" Lilac asked Luz, who nodded. They exchanged plates and Luz grabbed two slices for Lilac and then passed it back to her.

"Can ya get me an anchovies one?" Luz said and Lilac nodded and passed her one.

"Don't finish it all! Anchovies is my faves, squid." Rob laughed as he grabbed a couple slices for himself. Koral grabbed one of the anchovies slices and Jordan grabbed two of the pepperoni. I and Jet waited until they all grabbed what they needed before we got ours. I reached over to grab some pepperoni ones and so did Jet. From there, I grabbed the cups and started to pass them to everyone. Lilac, who was already eating, had trouble holding her cup due to all the cheese she had on her hands, Rob laughed and had to help her.

We were all eating, having our cups, and anyone getting the drink whenever they pleased.

"So, ya don't think we should enter the competition, playa?" Rob said as he stuffed some pizza in his mouth, only for him to take it out again. "Ow! Hot!" He flailed his hands towards his face to cool down his mouth.

"Dumbsquid." I heard someone mumble, I don't know if it was Luz or Jet. Maybe both.

"You should have been careful!" Lilac said and shook her head. Rob was starting to tear up due to the burn. Lilac stood up a bit and grabbed Rob's face. "Open your mouth." Well, that put me on the edge. Rob just stared at her confused and was blushing madly. She was completely calm and kept his face in her hands.

"Come on, I said open." She repeated herself and this time he complied. He opened his mouth, slowly, and when it was fully open she blew air into it to cool him down. She did it a couple more times before she leaned back a bit and smiled at him. "All better?"

Rob nodded while I was trying my best to not let my jaw drop. Why was he lucky to get that? Well, I don't think I would want to burn myself for that, but it would be nice to feel how soft her hands are on my face.

Lilac sat back down and continued eating her pizza, as if nothing had happened. Koral wasn't fazed by any of this and had been eating this whole time. Jordan as well but he was observing it all. Luz had to stop to giggle and Jet had to stop because he was choking a bit from holding in a laugh. Clearly, I and Rob were the only ones stunned by this experience.

"So! Jet, ya really not goin' to enter the competition?" Lilac asked the question that Rob had asked, who was just staring at his pizza, blushing still. Jet was still choking and had to cough a bit and even get himself a drink to get his composure back to how it usually is.

"Well, it's still pretty early to say, squid. We're still new and competitions are real tough. Pros and rankers enter that and I still don't know if we're ready enough." Jet explained and then took another sip of his drink.

"Oh, I see. I guess you're right. My bro is, like, entering so it does seem that rankers are doing it. It does seem that it'll be tough. It'll be tough." She nodded and then took a bite of her pizza.

"W-wait, no way?" Rob finally snapped out of it, though he still had a bit of a blush on him, as he looked over at Lilac. She nodded as she was eating her pizza.

"See. Do you think we'll be able to go up an S ranker?" Jet added in. This kind of disappointed Rob as he slumped back down and poked his pizza. I guess he's making sure it isn't too hot again.

"But you guys are good! I think a little bit more practice and, like, you guys can totally do it!" Lilac nodded and looked over at Rob and then at me. "Plus, it's not bad to at least try. Better than nothin'."

"She has a point there," Luz added as she poured herself a drink. "If you enter, you can see where you stand between pros and see where you, like, need to improve on. You can also start gettin' connections with other turfers and rankers, get them to share tips and practice with you. They're usually nice, especially if you, like, show potential. Sometimes, they seem cold at first, but they kind of have to when you're a ranker because things get real bad real quickly there. But they eventually loosen up to you if you're persistent and good." All the boys, including myself, turned over to Luz when she finished. None of us knew that kind of information into getting better and it didn't seem that Jet knew either as he turned as well. This was good information but it felt a bit odd.

"You know an awful lot about rankers," I raised an eyebrow. Luz looked over at me from the side, that's not a look I've seen from her. She had just placed a pizza in her mouth but she wasn't chewing on it, just holding it in place. I noticed that Jet gave a small smirk next to her. She eventually took a small bite and placed the pizza down. Slow chews were seen from her, as if she was thinking of a way to respond.

"Well, it's..." She stayed quiet before Jet continued for her.

"It's because you wanted to be a ranker instead of-" He was then caught off by a certain anemone.

"Hot wedges right up. Anythin' else, squids?" Jax had came in and placed the potato wedges and some ketchup near Luz's area. Another fake smile appeared as Luz looked at them and then at the unsuspecting Jax.

"No, this is fine for now. Thank you." Luz replied with a smile. A call was heard from another inkling and Jax went over, right when it looked like he was going to try to get some small talk again.

"Wedges..." I heard a whisper coming from somewhere and when I looked, Lilac was practically drooling at the potato wedges. Then I heard Jet cough and I looked over at him. Luz was staring at her potatoes but slowly looked over at Jet as well; she had a small blush on her face.

"Back where I was caught off, since I'm not going to let this go like last time," He started and stared at Luz. "You wanted to be a great ranker before this whole business thing started." At that moment, I saw Luz pout. So this is what it is about? She wants to be a ranker but her parents don't. But why was she all salty about during the battles last time?

"No way! You wanted to be a ranker, squid?" This was Rob, leaning forward to get a potato wedge. Lilac was staring at Luz, seeing her reaction to the situation, but ever so slightly glancing at the wedges.

"Yeah and I was pretty good at it too." Luz replied back and pushed the potatoes towards Lilac and away from Rob. "I was already an A rank." A sigh came from her and a small whine from Rob when Lilac grabbed a potato wedge instead of himself. I took a quick glance at her, she was happily munching on a couple of them.

"A rank? Pretty high, squid." Jet added, very nonchalantly.

"She was really good! She would always protect her other teammates. It was rare for her to lose!" Lilac added with potato in her mouth. Rob was next to her, staring at her eating them, with a blush of course. I couldn't help but stare either until I heard Koral say something real low.

"No one could touch her. She was too good."

"Yeah, but that was the past. Now, I have to concentrate on being a designer and not gettin'- gettin'... in trouble." Luz said but the last part seem like she had to think about what to respond with next. I don't think that's exactly what she was going to say next. Jet and Jordan seem to have caught that too as they both looked at her and I noticed Lilac had glanced at her slightly.

"Okay but like, sorry if I'm asking too much, but why don't your parents want you to rank?" I asked. Now that I'm knowing more of her, I don't want to judge her so harshly. Asking questions seems like a nice start. When I looked at Luz, she just smiled and looked over at Lilac. Lilac was teasing Rob with a wedge before she put it in her mouth. I was a bit jealous of that. Lilac then looked at us, closing her eyes and lifting her chin.

"Oh, dear. You can't be getting all sweaty and disgusting. You need more refine things in life." Lilac started to act, probably Luz's mom as her voice sounded feminine and with an accent. "You shall be a designer. Make beautiful clothing for them lower things. Plus, it makes more money than running around getting...inked." She made a disgusted face and then slightly flipped her tentacle. A giggle escaped from Luz, Jet watched her from the side.

"Perfect as always, Li." Luz commented. I smiled over at Lilac while Rob and Koral clapped at her performance. "That's basically why. You see, mother isn't like daddy. Daddy wasn't always rich, though mother loves bragging that he was, so ranking was how we earned money. Just like Lilac's dad. Mother was a rich squid all her life, so she didn't need to rank or turf and she feels that I should do the same. Daddy goes with it because he thinks mother is always correct."

"Did you explain to your dad that you don't want to?" I asked. This was getting interesting and I couldn't help myself.

"Well, duh. But he's so into mother that he doesn't care. And with all this mess and everyone's messes, we got this bassho-"

Luz stopped and looked over at Lilac who was frowning. "I mean, jerk, following us around now. Not only this could mess up my stuff, Lilac and Koral are in danger too. I doubt Rachel would care. She would probably want this jerk to follow us so she could kick their butt." Luz reached over to get her phone out of her bag and checked it. "Not like she will know soon. She doesn't have a phone right now and being that we had just argued, even if she did have her phone, I doubt she would text."

"But why would they get someone to stalk you?"

"Probably to make sure I don't turf. And, probably to check on these girls too. I think our parents are ruthless honestly." Luz sighed and looked over at me. "It is what it is though."

"That's not right," I mumbled. I noticed Koral slightly looked over at me but then went back to eating.

"Ain't right, but that's how it rolls." Lilac added, real serious this time. "Been like this for a while. Ever since I turned." I noticed that her torso was moving a little bit, she was probably dangling her legs a bit.

"But why are ya in this, squid?" Rob asked. She slightly looked over at him, placing her wedge down. She looked over at Luz real quickly before she looked back at Rob. I had this on my mind as well, but didn't wanted to ask; but it seems that Rob is very concerned for her.

Lilac looked a bit worried, as if she really didn't want to talk. I was feeling bad by all of this. Sure, something is probably bothering her but she clearly didn't want to tell. Lilac then grabbed her tentacle and slightly hugged it. Rob looked like he was about to ask something else but he looked over at Jet who shook his head. I was about to intervene until a shy voice started talking.

"My parents want me in business." Koral said beside me. Attention was now on her, perhaps she didn't want the attention on Lilac by how she was acting. "They say this will make sure we have enough money for the future. I think they even planned for me to work with Luz and her supposed designer career. But I'm like Luz, I want to be a ranker." She finished and then took a sip of her drink. "I was almost A rank before I stopped. I started after Luz since she's older. I was pretty good, at least from what I've heard. I was thinking about getting a longer range charger but, who knows now."

It was a bit quiet after that. I don't know how the rest of the guys were handling it. Jordan was still eating his pizza, Jet was looking over at Luz who was just staring over at Lilac. Lilac was still holding her tentacle but with her free hand, she was eating potato wedges. Rob and I stared at her, and Koral stared at her pizza.

"Well, no need to stay quiet. This is our problem and we've been doin' this for maybe over a year. We got this. Sure, it seems tough right now but we can deal with it." Luz started and smiled. "There's still a bit more of pizza. We can't let it go to waste."

"It's mostly anchovies, though. Anchovies suck." Lilac replied and a gasp was heard next to her.

"Anchovies is the best, squid!" Rob complained and grabbed a slice. He started eating it with a smile while Lilac made a face next to him. "You're just jealous that you can't taste how good this is." He said to her. Those two always lighten the mood when we do seem down. And, there goes my heart.

"Ew, like I'll ever say that anchovies taste good." Lilac scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue.

"You just did, squidette." Rob raised an eyebrow and stuck his tongue at her. These sort of things always make me feel melancholy. Lilac looks really cute and I like that she's happy, but knowing that Rob is the one making her happy instead of me sure bums me out. Rob is a real nice guy though, so it's not a bitter thing since he's not taking advantage of her or misleading her. Well, I hope he isnt.

"But I didn't say I liked it."

"But you didnt say that you didn't either, squidette."

I kept watching the two bicker in a playful way with a smile. I guess if she's happy. I sighed a bit and decided to avert my eyes a bit, before the whole thing becomes a staring problem. I looked over to the side, seeing couples and group of friends chatting away. Sure feels a bit surreal. Perhaps it's the whole thing about Lilac happening next to me is making me feel out of it and maybe annoyed. I should stop before things can get out of hand.

"You good, bro?" Jet asked me as I looked over at him. He looks like he's been observing me this whole time. I got a bit embarrassed and moved my glasses a bit up my bridge.

"Yeah. I'm alright." I replied. He simply nodded and went back to whatever he was doing. I sighed once again and was about to look over at the melancholy duo again when I was greeted by bright pink eyes up to me.

"Hey." Lilac said as her face was up to mine, our noses almost touching. The startle made me blush and I froze for a second. She must have moved seats with Koral real quickly and I had not notice.

"I, uhm... yes?" I replied back. I really didn't know what to do. I tried looking away but all I could look at is her big eyes.

"You okay?" Lilac asked as one of her tentacles poked my left arm. I kept blushing like an idiot and simply nodded. I heard someone hold in their laughter and I looked over to see it was Jet, looking away.

"Alright! Just, like, makin' sure." She said and then proceeded to hug me. That was another thing I did not expect. I didn't know if I should have hugged her back or not but I couldn't really do anything once her tentacles wrapped around my head. She does that a lot when she hugs. She wraps the other with her tentacles. I wouldn't have mind it if my field of vision wasn't blocked.

"I-I'm fine." I mumbled, hoping she would have heard me, but I guess not because she didn't move. Her embrace was very warm and her sweater was soft. I was captivated by her sweet scent, like flowers being freshly picked. Her tentacles felt soft against mine. Perhaps it was okay that she couldn't hear me.

"Lilac, sweetie, people like to breathe." I heard someone say, and by that pet name, it must have been Luz. Lilac then started to let go and had a small blush on.

"Oops. Im sorry. Are you okay, Hydro?" She looked a bit worried. I looked around quickly. Jet was still holding his laugh and Luz couldn't help but smile at her friend. Jordan wasn't paying attention much but Rob clearly was.

"It's okay. You didn't hurt me or anything." I quickly went back to Lilac. I smiled at her to reassure her, trying to suppress another blush on me, and shrugged a bit. She smiled back and sat right down next to me. I looked over at Rob who was just staring at Lilac as he was in a dream state; maybe he's wondering how it feels getting a hug from her. Koral beside him stole one of his potato wedges that he probably got after Lilac moved over.

* * *

"Alrighty! But that star looks much brighter." Lilac said as she skipped ahead and pointed at the sky.

"I think that one over there is brighter." I replied. I need glasses so I know that if I can see something from afar that it's bright.

"I'm sorry to interrupt both of you, but the brightest star is walking right with you." Luz interrupted and did a tentacle flip.

"Oh, I'm glad you all acknowledge me, squids." Rob came out from the back and posed right under a street light. Luz was found pouting and Lilac stopped and laughed.

"Looks like ya got competition there, Luz." Lilac said in between giggles. I couldn't help but smile, Lilac's laughs sure are cute. We were walking home from eating and noticed that we all get off at the same stop. We were having fun and laughs and things sure seem like in peace.

Things got a bit silent out of nowhere. I looked over at Lilac, who had stopped laughing, and was staring at someone in front of us. We had all stopped to look at who was coming towards us. I finally was able to see the white anchor tee and noticed some shades. Rachel was slowly walking to out group and I noticed that Lilac stood in place as Luz walked a bit forward. Things were once again getting fun and these girls seem to had turned it salty. I watched as the girls confront each other, Koral stayed in the back, and I heard Jet sigh once again.

"Hey." Rachel called out and walked a bit closer.

"What is it, Rachel?" Luz replied back harshly, which made Lilac gasp slightly at her.

"Your mom had been lookin' for you. Gotta be more careful there, squid. I told her that you at a friend's, some new friend I don't know, and that you were doing some girly stuff." She replied, calmly. She threw a bag I did not see her have to Lilac. She caught it and slowly opened it. Lilac then started to sway like she does and took out what was inside; it was a donut. She started to eat it.

"Oh, er, thanks. I guess." Luz finally said back, probably caught back by her information. Rachel simply nodded and was about to walk away when Lilac's long tentacles were able to reach her. Rachel looked back and Lilac quickly ate the piece she had in her mouth.

"We're all walking home together. You should, like, walk with us. Walk with us." Lilac told her as she had walked closer to her and grabbed her hand with her not donut hand.

"Psht. I guess." Rachel was heard and Lilac rocked on her toes. That was when I heard Jet start walking again, giving us the green light to continue on our way. We all walked up to the group of girls, Luz and Rachel looking very uncomfortable, and they started to walk along with the group.

It was a bit quiet at first, especially since Lilac was eating her donut and holding Rachel's hand.

"So, what are you going to, like, do tomorrow?" Luz asked. It didn't seem like she ask a specific inkling as she wasn't looking at anyone.

"I'm going to go with Rob to the skate park!" Lilac finally announced after eating her last bite of the donut. I immediately looked over at Rob. It's like he had been keeping this a secret as he looked a bit flustered by the announcement.

"Oh! What are you both going to do?" Luz sounded intrigued and gave a glance at Rob, who blushed.

"He's gonna teach me how to skate." Lilac nodded and smiled back at Rob. Rob gave a nervous smile at her as all eyes were on him now. Rob did tell us that he's real good on the skateboard a couple of days back. Lilac was there and was super excited to know that Rob knew how to skate. I guess she asked him to teach her and he complied, doubting he would ever turn her down.

"It's just going to be intro, so it'll just be how to balance on the board and to at least push herself a bit on it." Rob quickly explained, looking away and scratching the back of his head as a blush was clearly forming. Jet, who was nearby was holding in a laugh again as Jordan couldn't help but just stare at Rob. Lilac then came over and stopped right in front of Rob. He blushed even more by her unexpected action.

"But it's goin' to be, like, lots of fun!" She said and smiled at him. Rob smiled back and gave a small laugh.

"I guess it will. You always make things fun." Rob's fangs were visible as he grinned and Lilac's as well.

"Get a room!" Rachel was heard say loudly. Rob stiffened up and his grin fell as his eyes widened. It looked like he didn't know what to do. Lilac looked very confused.

"What does that mean?" Lilac asked. Before Rachel could open her mouth, Luz covered it and cleared her throat.

"Nothin' of your concern." Luz explained. "Come on, let's keep on going." She started to walk with Rachel and Lilac following behind. Koral eventually came out from the back and decided to get towards the rest of the girls. Rob was still frozen in place as Jet was still holding in a laugh. Jordan walked right behind Rob, lift him up and started walking. I was salty. Even though the scene in front of me was clearly hilarious, especially the part that Rob is still not moving as Jordan takes him away, I couldn't help but feel a sting. Everyone seems to have acknowledge this little crush that Rob has so easily and it seems that people have taken sides of it already. I guess I'm just being a jealous squid. Clearly, being that I too have a crush on Lilac yet it seems that she acknowledges him more even after my poor efforts. I should really calm down before I start getting even angrier.

I sighed and followed the tall Jordan with the stiffen Rob, only to notice that Jet was right by my side. He was quiet and had not said anything, but knowing him, he must know something is up. I stayed quiet. Is it okay to talk to him about it? He is our leader but he is much closer to Rob than to me. Does that make a difference? As I looked over, I noticed that Jet went back to his usual angry expression. He doesn't seem one to pick a side because of favor. He thinks about things thoroughly so I doubt he'll pick Rob just because he's a friend.

"Hey, Jet." I was about to start only to see that everyone else was waiting for us at the intersection.

"Hm?" I heard Jet and I simply shook my head after that.

"Never mind." I backed away. Perhaps I shouldn't have dwelled on it too much.

"This is where we all split!" Lilac said out loud and smiled at me. I smiled back and looked at everyone else. It looked like they have already split into groups. Rachel, Luz, Lilac, and Koral were standing by the left and Jordan and Rob were up on front to go forward. Jet kept standing by me.

"Which way do you go?" Rachel asked me. Usually it is just me and Lilac having to part ways; this is the first time we all had gotten together and went our ways.

"I go that way," I pointed to the right side, where no one was heading to. I saw Luz and Rob give me some confused looks, I guess they don't know many people that go that way.

"I guess this is where we all leave you be, bro." Jet said as he walked over to Jordan after he had patted me on the back a bit.

"I guess." I replied as I walked towards my way.

"See ya all some other time, squids." Luz said to all of us.

"Later." Rachel quickly said and Koral waved to all of us.

"Bye." Jet started to walk and Jordan did as well by his side.

"Be safe, my squids." Rob had told us as well. Many of us simply nodded.

"Don't forget about tomorrow, Rob." Lilac had called out as they walked.

"I won't!" He replied with a huge grin.

"He'll probably oversleep, squid. Better get ready to wait on him." Jet was heard.

"I-I won't!" A nervous Rob was heard and a couple of giggles as well.

"Better not!" Lilac replied. I saw her turn and started to walk backwards like usual. "Bye, Hydro!" She waved at me, and I did as well, before I turned around to look where I was going. After walking a bit more forward, I looked back a bit. The boys were gone out of view but the girls were barely visible. Lilac was still walking backwards but was talking to one of the girls as I noticed that her attention was somewhere else. Everyone else continued to walk forward and seeing that they were all in their own thing, I went back to looking forward.

This was an odd day. For the most part it was an actual fun day. Sure, there was some few salty moments here and there but it seem a bit nice that they were somewhat tackled. Well, other than the fact that the girls are in a pretty salty situation and it seems that they can get no help whatsoever. But they seem strong. Perhaps there is a way to help them.

I shook my head. Getting too attached to people I barely know nothing of. But I'm a bit glad that I was able to learn a bit more of Luz. I first met her a few weeks ago and yet I knew nothing about her until today. She's not just a mean squid after all, she's pretty nice under that pouty exterior. Perhaps it's all some sort of defense mechanism she had made for herself. It did seem that she was under much constraint. It looked off from all that attitude she gave us from the first day I met her. But all that time we were turfing, so perhaps it was because she was in a different zone. Probably not though. When Koral and Lilac were explaining her ranking days, they said that she was nice Luz was very off when she talked, always having to hide something. Like when she said she was 'busy' with Jax and that she had to make sure she didn't get in trouble. This seems very odd. I shook my head once more. This was getting a bit confusing.

But of more concern was Lilac. Not only was she hurt by a little line that Rachel had told her, that was very odd by the matter, but she was very quiet about herself. She seems to be always very quiet about herself. She didn't respond about what Rachel told her, she didn't say anything about her knowledge on dancing, she didn't say anything about why she was in the same situation as the other girls, and she didn't say anything about this date she has with Rob. Okay, maybe the last one isn't that much of concern and she didn't call it a date so perhaps it wasn't. But it sure does look like that. Anyways, she's very secretive. She's always trying to help everyone with their lives but I think I know less of her life than I do of Luz now. Maybe she just doesn't want people to worry about her that much. It's clearly doing the opposite for me and Rob though. I sighed as I continued walking. I have a long way to go to get to my house and all I can do is worry. This isn't going to be let down either. What will Rob and Lilac be doing tomorrow? Wait, no. I shouldn't be worried about that. I should be worried about other stuff but here I am worried about a simple hang out that my friends are going to take. A simple hang out by my crush and my friend. My friend that clearly has a huge crush on her. My friend that has been a bit close to her. A friend that makes her happy when she's sad.

I punched the wall next to me. Dammit, I told myself not get worried about this. If something is going around with these two then it isn't a problem; it's not like she has to be with me or anything. She has free will to pick who she wants and I shouldn't be so stuck on this.

Ow. I look down to my hand. Maybe that wasn't the smartest idea. I tried opening my hand a bit but it hurt like hell. This is what I get for letting this get to me. I sigh. Maybe I shouldn't be thinking about this right now. I take out my earphones and plug them into my phone. I pick out a song I want and hope that the next song that comes out isn't a love song.

* * *

AN: Ah yes, hello. This chapter took way longer than what it was supposed to. I got busy with course work and I got so into drawing that I kind of left writing for a bit. I'll try to get back into writing and I want to finish this fic by Valentine's Day (whheeezing) so expect chapters maybe a bit faster. I do have a tumblr blog, shikakunfan01, and I draw my squids and you guys can ask them questions if you like. So if you to see how my little kiddos look, jump onto that blog. You can also bug me about this fic and getting it done sooner. I also have a twitter that I rarely use but I do talk post updates about chapters. Uhm, I think that is all for now. Please review and see if I can improve on anything, or tell me what you like the most, and I'll see you in the next chapter.


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